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THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

KKW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •>    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


THE  SOUL  OF 
JOHN  BROWN 


BY 

STEPHEN  GRAHAM 


.fieto 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1920 

All  Rights  Rtstrved 


COPTKIGHT,  1920, 

J3y    THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I    Thoughts  on  Slavery     ....  3 

II    In  Virginia     ........  22 

III  Orators    and   Actors,    Preachers 

and  Singers 70 

IV  In  Tennessee 97 

V    Marching  Through  Georgia     .    .  119 

VI    Tramping  to  the  Sea      ....  152 

VII    After  the  War:  the  Vote    ...  182 

VIII    In    Alabama:    Color    and    Color 

Prejudice        . 195 

IX    The  Southern  Point  of  View  .     .  211 

X    Exodus 232 

XI    In  North  Florida  and  New  Orleans  240 

XII    The  New  Negro  Mind     ....  263 

•*  -•:• 

XIII  Negro  Leadership    .  .,     .     .    .    .  282 

XIV  The  World  Aspect     .    .    .    .    .  291 
XV    Up  the  Mississippi        ....  309 

XVI    At  Vicksburg      .......  328 

5049M4 


The  Negro  slaves  were  released  in  1863.  They 
and  their  children  number  twelve  millions  out 
of  a  total  of  a  hundred  millions  of  all  races 
blending  in  America.  Where  do  the  children 
of  the  slaves  stand  to-day! 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY 

ALTHOUGH  Charles  Lynch  of  Virginia  used  to 
suspend  British  farmers  by  their  thumbs  until 
they  cried  out  Liberty  for  ever!  and  lynching 
has  continued  ever  since,  America  is  neverthe 
less  at  bottom  free,  or  at  least  was  intended  to 
be  so  by  the  idealists  and  politicians  who 
brought  her  forth.  America  is  a  living  reproof 
of  Europe,  and  it  has  been  generally  conceived 
of  as  a  land  where  men  should  suffer  no 
encroachment  upon  their  personal  liberty, 
where  they  should  reap  duly  the  fruits  of  their 
labors,  where  no  man  should  sap  their  rugged 
independence  or  infringe  upon  the  sovereign 
equality  of  their  social  rights,  where  govern 
ment  should  be  entirely  by  consent  of  the  gov 
erned,  not  handed  down  from  above  as  from 
superior  beings  or  masters,  but  controlled  from 
below,  from  the  broad  base  of  toiling  humanity. 
The  first  discoverers  were  plunderers  and 
seekers  after  barbaric  gold  and  gems,  but  her 
real  pioneers  were  God-fearing  men  who  laid 
the  foundations  of  modern  American  civiliza 
tion  by  honest  work  and  a  boundless  belief  in 
the  development  of  free  democracy,  The  insti- 


ilfc:      'THE 'SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

tution  of  slavery  was  therefore  the  thing  which 
in  theory  was  most  abhorrent  to  the  American 
mind.  It  is  a  curious  anomaly  that  a  very  short 
while  after  the  Declaration  of  Independence  the 
land  from  which  America  separated  became 
free  of  slavery,  and  the  British  flag  pre-emi 
nently  the  flag  of  freedom.  But  America,  freed 
though  she  had  become  from  political  inter 
ference  on  the  part  of  Britain,  nevertheless 
inherited  Negro  slavery ;  and  the  economic  pros 
perity  of  at  least  one-half  of  the  country  was 
founded  on  the  most  hideous  bondage  in  world 
history.  Those  who  had  fled  Europe  to  escape 
tyrants  had  themselves,  under  force  of  circum 
stances,  become  tyrants. 

Not  that  anyone  willed  slavery  in  America  or 
designed  to  have  it.  It  was  an  economic  acci 
dent.  It  was  in  America  before  most  of  the 
Americans.  The  first  Negro  slaves  were  brought 
up  the  James  Eiver  in  Virginia  before  the 
Mayflower  arrived,  and  as  Negro  orators  say 
to-day,  "If  being  a  long  while  in  this  country 
makes  a  good  American,  we  are  the  best  Ameri 
cans  that  there  are."  Slavery  had  grown  to 
vast  proportions  by  the  time  of  the  war  against 
Britain.  New  America  in  1783,  standing  on  the 
threshold  of  the  modern  era,  inherited  a  most 
terrible  burden  in  her  millions  of  slaves.  It 
was  a  burden  that  was  growing  into  the  live 
flesh  of  America,  and  no  one  dared  face  at  that 
time  the  problem  of  getting  free  of  it. 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  5 

The  actual  American  people  as  a  whole  were 
little  responsible  for  the  institution  of  slavery. 
The  pioneers  hated  and  feared  it.  The  planters 
always  condemned  it  in  theory,  and  after  the 
Emancipation  of  1863  no  one  of  any  sense  in 
the  South  has  ever  wished  it  back.  Even  in 
those  States  where  slavery  took  deepest  root 
and  showed  its  worst  characteristics,  there  was 
throughout  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen 
turies  a  persistent  resistance  on  the  part  of  the 
colonists  against  having  black  servile  labor 
introduced. 

To  cite  one  colony  as  in  a  way  characteristic 
of  the  whole  attitude  of  the  colonists  toward 
slavery,  Georgia  might  be  taken.  Georgia  was 
originally  an  asylum  for  the  bad  boys  of  too 
respectable  British  families  and  for  discharged 
convicts  and  hopeless  drunkards.  Eoyal  char 
ter  guaranteed  freedom  of  religion  (except 
to  Papists) ;  an  embargo  was  placed  on  West 
Indian  trade,  so  as  to  stop  the  inflow  of  rum; 
and  Negro  slavery  was  forbidden.  All  for  the 
good  of  reprobates  making  a  fresh  start ! 

Invalids  and  merchants  settled  on  the  coast 
and  made  the  society  of  Savannah.  The  bad 
boys  proved  to  be  too  poor  stuff  with  which  to 
found  a  colony,  and  a  special  body  of  a  hundred 
and  thirty  frugal  and  industrious  Scots  and  a 
hundred  and  seventy  carefully  chosen  Germans 
were  brought  in.  Eeal  work  in  Georgia  com 
menced  at  Ebenezer,  on  the  Savannah  Eiver, 


6          THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

and  at  New  Inverness.  The  merchants  strove  to 
get  slavery  introduced;  the  Scots  and  the  Ger 
mans  strove  to  keep  it  out.  At  Savannah  every 
night  polite  society  toasted  "The  One  Thing 
Needful" — Slavery.  The  common  talk  of  the 
townsfolk  was  of  the  extra  prosperity  that 
would  come  to  Georgia  if  slaves  were  brought 
in,  the  extra  quantities  of  cotton,  of  rice,  of 
timber,  and  all  that  middlemen  could  re-sell. 
The  ministers  of  religion  actually  preached  in 
churches  in  favor  of  an  institution  sanctioned 
by  the  Bible,  and  it  was  thought  that  a  service 
was  done  for  Christ  by  bringing  the  black  men, 
out  of  Africa,  where  they  were  somewhat  inac 
cessible,  and  throwing  them  into  the  bosom  of 
the  Christian  family  in  America.  But  the  Scots 
and  the  Germans  remonstrated  against  the  per 
mission  of  an  evil  shocking  to  human  nature 
and  likely  to  prove  in  time  not  a  blessing  but 
a  scourge. 

Over  in  South  Carolina  slavery  was  in  full 
possession,  and  the  wealth  of  the  Carolinian 
merchants  was  a  soreness  to  the  lean  traders  of 
Georgia.  Cupidity  prompted  underhand  means 
to  achieve  the  desired  end.  Slaves  were  im 
ported  on  life  lease  from  owners  in  South  Caro 
lina.  One  could  not  purchase  the  freehold  of  a 
Negro's  liberty  and  energy,  only  a  ninety-nine 
years'  lease  of  it,  as  it  were,  but  that  sufficed. 
Freedom  fell,  the  charter  was  abrogated,  and 
under  the  sway  of  a  royal  governor  the  flood- 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  7 

gates  of  slavery  were  opened  wide.  In  due  time 
Georgia  became  one  of  the  worst  slave  States  of 
the  South.  It  remains  to  this  day  one  of  those 
where  in  any  case  the  contemporary  record  of 
"burning  and  lynching  is  most  lurid.  It  would 
not  be  unsafe  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  the 
introduction  of  slavery  did  as  much  harm  to  the 
souls  of  the  original  Germans,  Scots,  and  Eng 
lish  and  their  descendants  as  to  the  Negroes 
themselves. 

The  settlers  were,  however,  loath  to  employ 
slaves,  and  for  some  years  there  was  little 
change.  It  was  the  rich  immigrants  from  South 
Carolina  and  elsewhere  who  embarked  on  large 
enterprises  of  planting  with  a  labor  basis  of 
black  slaves.  The  poor  white  laboring  class  was 
gradually  ruined  by  competition  with  slave 
labor.  And  then  it  became  generally  under 
stood  that  everyone  had  to  employ  slaves,  and 
it  was  unbecoming  for  a  white  man  to  toil  with 
Ms  hands.  The  poor  Whites  were  if  anything 
more  despised  than  the  black  slaves,  and  often 
indeed  actually  despised,  paradoxically  enough, 
by  the  latter.  In  some  parts  there  sprang  up 
bands  of  white  gypsies  and  robbers  called 
"pinelanders,"  who  stole  from  Black  and  White 
alike,  and  lived  by  their  wits. 

In  Africa  the  Negro  tribes  strove  with  one 
another  an  savagery,  and  sold  their  prisoners 
to  the  Negro  traders  or  White  agents,  who 
dragged  them  to  the  coast,  There  they  were 


8          THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

herded  in  the  holds  of  noisome  slaving  vessels, 
indiscriminately,  nakedly,  fortuitously,  the  vio 
lent  ones  tied  up  or  chained,  the  gentler  ones 
unloosed.  None  knew  whither  they  were  going, 
and  even  those  victorious  tribes  who  sold  them 
to  the  white  man  knew  nothing  of  the  destina 
tion  of  the  victims  they  thus  despatched.  Hun 
dreds  of  thousands,  nay,  millions  of  tribesmen 
of  all  kinds  and  shades  of  black  and  brown  were 
thus  exported  to  the  Indies  and  the  Colonies 
and  sold  into  bondage  to  the  civilized  world. 
Arrived  in  America,  the  slaves  were  sold  to 
merchants  or  auctioned  as  common  cattle  and 
sent  up  country  to  work.  A  healthy  male  slave 
of  good  dimensions  and  in  his  prime  would  fetch 
a  thousand  dollars  and  young  women  eight 
hundred  dollars,  and  fair-sized  girls  five  hun 
dred.  Olmsted  gives  a  price  list  which  was 
handed  him  by  a  dealer;  that  was  in  1853.*  In 
earlier  years  the  price  was  considerably  less, 
and  always  varied  according  to  the  demand. 
The  raw,  first-come  Negro  slaves  were  not  sold 
as  retinue  for  the  rich,  but  as  colonial  utilities 
to  be  worked  like  cattle  on  the  farms  and  plan- 

*Best   men,   18-25 $1,200-$1,300 

Fair  men 950-  1,050 

Boys    375-     950 

Young  women   800-  1,000 

Girls,   5  ft 750-     850 

"       4  ft.   9   ins 700-     750 

4  ft 350-     450 

— "A  Journey  Through  the  Seaboard 
Slave  States,"  by  F.  L.  Olmsted. 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVEEY  9 

tations.  Cotton  was  the  staple,  and  in  thinking 
of  the  time  the  eye  must  range  over  a  vast 
expanse  of  cotton  plantations  and  see  all  the 
main  work  done  by  Negro  gangs  of  men  and 
women  in  charge  of  slave  drivers.  As  Olmsted 
describes  a  gang  of  women  in  a  characteristic 
passage — "The  overseer  rode  about  them  on 
a  horse,  carrying  in  his  hand  a  rawhide  whip 
.  .  .  but  as  often  as  he  visited  one  end  of  the 
line  the  hands  at  the  other  end  would  discon 
tinue  their  labor  until  he  turned  to  them  again. 
Clumsy,  awkward,  gross,  elephantine  in  all  their 
movements;  pouting,  grinning,  and  leering  at 
us;  sly,  sensual,  and  shameless  in  all  their  ex 
pression  and  demeanor ;  I  never  before  had  wit 
nessed,  I  thought,  anything  more  revolting  .  .  ." 
In  1837  the  whole  of  Georgia,  and  indeed  of  the 
South,  was  worked  by  black  slaves — the  poor 
white  labor  (chiefly  Irish)  had  diminished 
almost  to  disappearance.  Slave  labor  was 
founded  on  slave  discipline,  and  the  discipline 
on  punishment.  There  was  no  particular  readi 
ness  on  the  part  of  the  savages  to  do  the  work 
given  them  or  understand  what  they  had  to  do. 
Whether  they  could  have  been  coaxed  or  per 
suaded  is  problematical.  Farmers  have  not  the 
time  or  the  spirit  for  coaxing.  The  quickest 
way  was  by  inspiring  terror  or  inflicting  pain. 
It  might  have  been  different  if  the  Negro  could 
have  been  given  any  positive  incentive  to  work, 
but  there  was  none.  He  had  therefore  to  be 


10        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

flogged  to  it.  The  smallest  gang  had  its  driver 
with  his  whip.  The  type  who  to-day  has  become 
politely  a  '  '  speeder  up ' '  was  then  the  man  with 
the  whip.  He  could  have  had  more  power  by 
using  his  whip  infrequently  and  on  the  most 
stubborn  slaves,  but  that  was  not  the  common 
man's  way.  He  flogged  hard  and  he  flogged 
often.  On  a  typical  Georgian  plantation  the 
field  driver  had  power  to  inflict  twelve  lashes 
there  and  then  when  trouble  occurred.  The 
head  driver  could  give  thirty-six  and  the  over 
seer  fifty.  Every  morning  there  would  be  a 
dozen  or  so  special  floggings  by  the  overseer  or 
his  assistant  at  the  office.  "Women  if  anything 
fared  worse  than  men.  On  the  slightest  provo 
cation  their  scanty  clothes  were  thrown  over 
their  heads  and  they  were  subjected  to  a  beat 
ing.  Naked  boys  and  girls  were  tied  by  their 
wrists  to  boughs  of  trees  so  that  their  toes 
barely  touched  the  ground,  and  lashed.  The 
overseer  did  it,  the  owner's  son  did  it,  upon 
occasion  the  owner  himself  did  it. 

There  were  pleasant  exceptional  homes  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  and  elsewhere  where 
there  was  no  flogging  and  no  cruelty  whatso 
ever,  but  instead  a  great  mutual  affection. 
Slavery  may  have  been  wrong  there  also,  or  it 
may  have  been  justifiable.  But  it  was  not  on 
account  of  the  happy  slaves  that  John  Brown 
sallied  forth  at  Harper's  Ferry,  but  because  of 
the  many  unhappy  ones,  As  the  whole  intensity 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  11 

of  the  Negro  trouble  is  centered  in  the  evils 
of  the  institution  of  slavery,  it  is  necessarily 
on  these  that  one  must  insist,  though  the  excep 
tions  be  not  lost  sight  of. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  slaves  were  seldom 
hurt  because,  since  they  were  property,  it  be 
hooved  a  master  to  take  care  of  them  and  pre 
serve  them.  But  that  is  fallacious.  Men  got 
pleasure  out  of  beating  their  slaves  as  they 
get  pleasure  out  of  chewing  tobacco,  drinking 
spirits,  and  using  bad  language.  It  grew  on 
them;  they  liked  it  more  and  more.  In  many 
cases  no  proficiency  or  industry  could  save  the 
slaves  from  a  flogging.  And,  besides  that,  there 
was  current  in  Georgia  and  all  the  more  com 
mercial  parts  a  theory  that  it  was  most  profit 
able  to  use  up  your  slaves  every  seven  years 
and  then  re-stock. 

Slaves  of  course  were  bred,  and  it  is  conceiv 
able  that  it  might  have  been  generally  more 
profitable  to  have  a  breeding  farm  of  Negroes 
and  sell  the  children  than  work  them  off  in 
seven  years.  But  there  was  little  method  in  the 
minds  of  the  planters.  They  tried  to  combine 
the  seven-years  system  and  breeding  at  the 
same  time.  Every  girl  of  sixteen  had  children, 
every  woman  of  thirty  had  grandchildren.  But 
the  women  were  worked  up  to  the  last  moment 
of  pregnancy  on  the  cotton  fields  and  sent  back 
three  weeks  after  delivery,  and  even  flogged 
then.  The  poor  women  lay  on  straw  on  earthen 


12        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

floors  in  their  torments,  moaning  in  their  ago 
nies.  When  sent  back  to  the  fields  too  soon  they 
suffered  horrible  physical  torment.  They  often 
appealed  to  their  masters:  "Me  make  plenty 
nigger  for  massa,  me  useful  nigger. ' '  But  more 
than  half  of  their  offspring  were  allowed  to  die. 
The  mother  would  have  been  worth  her  keep  as 
a  mother,  but,  no,  she  must  fill  her  place  in  the 
hoeing  line  instead  of  looking  after  her 
children. 

There  were  few  genuine  Negro  families.  All 
were  herded  or  separated  and  sold  off  in 
batches  and  re-herded  with  little  or  no  regard 
to  family  relationships,  though  these  poor, 
dark-minded  slaves  did  form  the  most  intimate 
and  precious  attachments.  The  slaves '  fervent 
hope  was  that  massa  would  marry  and  have 
children,  so  that  when  he  died  they  would  not 
be  sold  up,  but  remain  in  the  family. 

Illegitimacy  in  sexual  relationships  raged. 
Almost  every  planter  had  besides  his  own 
family  a  dusky  brood  of  colored  women.  No 
likely  girl  escaped  the  overseers.  Poor  whites 
and  pinelanders  broke  into  black  quarters  and 
ravished  where  they  would.  There  seemed  little 
squeamishness,  and  there  was  little  enough 
effective  resistance  on  the  part  of  black  girls*. 
The  institution  of  slavery  with  its  cruelties  had 
brutalized  men's  minds.  As  for  the  Negro 
women,  one  can  well  understand  how  little  f emi- 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVEEY  13 

nine  sh'ame  would  remain  when  the  bare  hips 
were  so  commonly  exposed  and  flogged. 

"Oh,  but  don't  you  know — did  nobody  ever 
tell  or  teach  any  of  you  that  it  is  a  sin  to  live 
with  men  who  are  not  your  husbands?"  asked 
Fanny  Kemble  of  a  slave.  The  latter  seized  her 
vehemently  by  the  wrist  and  exclaimed : 

' '  Oh,  yes,  missie,  we  know — we  know  all  about 
dat  well  enough ;  but  we  do  anything  to  get  our 
poor  flesh  some  rest  from  the  whip;  when  he 
make  me  follow  him  into  de  bush,  what  use  me 
tell  him  no?  He  have  strength  to  make  me."* 

Probably  the  slave  drivers  and  other  white 
men  obtained  some  sensual  gratification  from 
flogging  women.  Brutality  of  this  kind  is  often 
associated  with  sexual  perversity.  The  taking 
of  Negro  women  showed  a  will  toward  the 
animal  and  was  an  act  of  greater  depravity 
than  ordinary  deflections  from  the  straight  and 
moral  way.  Not  that  there  was  not  pride  in 
pale  babies  and  even  a  readiness  on  the  part 
of  some  Negresses  to  give  themselves  to  white 
men.  As  a  plantation  song  said :  '  '  Twenty-four 
black  girls  can't  make  one  mulatto  baby  by 
themselves." 

By  flogging  and  rape  and  inhuman  callous 
ness  did  the  white  South  express  its  reaction 
to  black  slavery.  There  were  also  burnings, 

*  "Two  Years  on  a  Georgian  Plantation,"  by  Frances 
Kemble, 


14        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

demoniacal  tortures,  flogging  to  death,  and 
every  imaginable  human  horror.  It  may  well 
be  asked:  How  came  it  about  that  those  ivho 
protested  so  high-mindedly  about  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  did  not  use  the  slaves  kindly  and 
humanly  when  they  were  forced  to  have  them? 

The  answer  I  think  lies  in  the  fact  that  no 
man  is  good  enough  to  have  complete  control 
over  any  other  man.  No  man  can  be  trusted. 
Give  your  best  friend  or  neighbor  power  over 
you,  and  you'll  be  surprised  at  the  use  he  will 
make  of  it.  Even  wives  and  children  in  this 
respect  are  not  safe  in  the  hands  of  their  hus 
bands  and  parents  if  they  are  understood  as 
possessions.  "She  belongs  to  me  and  I'll  kill 
her,"  Gorky  makes  a  drunken  cobbler  say 
"Ah,  no,  she  does  not  belong  to  you;  she  is  a 
woman,  and  a  woman  belongs  to  God, ' '  says  tha 
Eussian  friend. 

There  is  indeed  little  more  terrifying  in 
human  experience  than  the  situation  which 
occurs  when  one  human  being  is  entirely  in  the 
power  of  another,  when  the  prisoner  in  the 
dungeon  confronts  his  torturer,  when  the  un 
protected  girl  falls  completely  into  the  power 
of  a  man,  when  Shylock  has  Antonio  delivered 
to  him,  and  so  forth. 

Cruelty  can  be  awakened  in  almost  any  man 
and  woman — it  can  be  developed.  A  taste  for 
cruelty  is  like  a  taste  for  drink  or  sexual  desire 
or  drugs.  It  is  a  lust.  It  is  indeed  one  of  the 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVEEY  15 

worst  of  the  lusts.  One  can  forgive  or  excuse 
a  man  the  other  lasts,  but  cruelty  one  cannot — 
and  indeed  does  not  wish  to  forgive  or  excuse. 
Yet  how  readily  does  it  develop. 

The  incredible  story  is  told  of  a  young  girl 
lashed  by  the  overseer,  threatened  with  burn 
ing.  She  runs  away.  It  is  a  gala  day  on  the 
plantation.  The  white  men  hunt  her  to  the 
swamps  with  bloodhounds  and  she  is  torn  to 
bits  before  their  eyes.  They  love  the  spectacle 
of  terror  even  more  than  the  spectacle  of  pain. 
The  Negro,  of  nervous,  excitable  nature,  is 
marked  out  by  destiny  to  be  a  butt  for  cruelty. 
It  is  so  to-day,  long  after  emancipation;  the 
Negro,  in  whom  hysterical  fear  can  be  awak 
ened,  is  the  most  likely  to  be  lynched  or  chased 
by  the  mob  or  slowly  burned  for  its  delight. 
More  terrible  than  the  act  of  cruelty  is  the  state 
of  mind  of  those  who  can  look  on  at  it  and  gloat 
over  it.  After  all,  a  lynching  is  often  roughly 
excusable.  A  man  commits  a  heinous  crime 
against  a  woman,  scandalizing  the  community, 
and  the  community  takes  the  law  into  its  own 
hands.  The  rightness  of  the  action  can  be 
argued.  But  what  of  the  state  of  heart  of  a 
mob  of  a  thousand,  watching  a  Negro  burning 
to  death,  listening  happily  to  his  yells  and  cry 
ing  out  to  "make  him  die  slow"?  It  is  an  ap 
palling  revelation  of  the  devil  in  man. 

And  despite  the  fact  that  such  cruelty  ago 
nizes  the  mind  of  the  tender-hearted  and  sym- 


16        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

pathetic,  we  must  remain  tolerant  in  judgment. 
We  must  not  tolerate  intolerance;  in  all  other 
respects  we  must  be  tolerant. 

Cruelty  is  in  man.  The  planters  did  the  nat 
ural  thing  with  the  slaves  who  came  into  their 
power.  The  white  South  would  slip  into  the 
same  way  of  life  again  to-day  if  slavery  could 
be  introduced.  What  is  more,  you  and  I,  and 
every  man,  unless  he  were  of  an  exceptional 
nature,  would  succumb  to  the  system  and  dis 
grace  ourselves  with  similar  cruelty.  A  demon 
not  altogether  banished  still  lurks  in  most  of  us 
and  can  easily  be  brought  back.  Lust  lives  on 
lust  and  grows  stronger ;  and  cruelty,  like  other 
cravings,  is  a  desire  of  the  flesh,  and  can  easily 
become  devouring  habit.  We  are  greater  brutes 
after  we  have  committed  an  act  of  cruelty  or 
lust  than  we  were  before  we  committed  it,  and 
we  are  made  ready  to  commit  more  or  worse. 

Concomitant  with  cruelty  is  callousness.  An 
indifference  which  is  less  than  usual  human 
carelessness  sets  in  with  regard  to  creatures  on 
whom  we  have  satisfied  our  lusts.  Flogging 
makes  a  heavy  flogged  type  of  human  being  who 
looks  as  if  he  had  always  needed  flogging.  It 
ceases  to  be  piquant  to  flog  him.  The  old  Negress 
with  brutish  human  lusts  written  all  over  her 
body  is  not  even  horrible  or  repulsive,  elle 
n' exist e  plus.  The  old,  worn-out  drudge  lies 
down  to  die  in  the  dirty  straw,  the  flies  gather 
ing  about  Ms  mouth,  and  expires  without  one 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  17 

Christian  solace  or  one  Christian  sympathy. 
Though  ministers  waxed  eloquent  on  the  Chris 
tian  advantages  to  the  Blacks  of  being  brought 
from  pagan  Africa  to  Christian  America,  there 
quickly  sets  in  the  belief  that  after  all  Negroes 
are  like  animals  and  have  no  souls  to  save. 

This  callousness  showed  worst  in  the  selling 
of  slaves,  the  separating  of  black  husband  and 
wife,  parents  and  children,  family  and  family, 
with  the  indifference  with  which  a  herdsman 
separates  and  detaches  sheep  from  his  flock. 
This,  despite  the  manifest  passionate  tender 
ness  and  attachment  of  slave  to  slave,  and  even 
upon  occasion  slave  to  master  and  home. 

The  state  of  the  slaves  grew  most  forlorn,  for 
saken  of  man,  unknown  to  God.  A  prison  twi 
light  eclipsed  the  light  of  the  sun-flooded  South 
land.  A  consciousness  of  a  sad,  sad  fate  was 
begotten  among  the  slaves.  All  the  tribes  of 
the  Negroes  became  one  in  a  community  of  suf 
fering.  And  gradually  they  ceased  to  be  mere 
savages.  They  grew  to  something  higher — 
through  suffering.  It  was  a  penal  offense  for 
many  a  long  year  even  to  preach  Christ  to  them. 
Slaves  were  beaten  when  it  was  found  out  that 
they  had  been  baptized.  But  before  the  Blacks 
were  brought  to  Christ  they  must  have  got  a 
great  deal  nearer  Him  than  had  their  masters. 
It  was  illegal  to  teach  a  slave  to  read  and  write. 
But  the  Negroes  in  a  mysterious  way  learned 
the  white  man's  code  and  secretly  obtained  his 


18        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Bible  and  plunged  into  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New.  The  white  man  rightly  feared  that  the 
spread  of  education  among  the  slaves  would 
endanger  the  institution.  They  spoke  of  slavery 
as  the  institution  as  if  it  were  the  only  one  in 
the  world.  They  also  feared  the  spread  of 
Christian  teaching. 

As  it  happened,  the  Negro  soul  was  very 
thirsty  for  religion  and  drank  very  deeply  of 
the  wells  of  God.  The  Negroes  learned  to  sing 
together,  thus  first  of  all  expressing  corporate 
life.  They  drew  from  the  story  of  Israel's  suf 
ferings  a  token  of  their  own  life,  and  they 
formed  their  scarcely  articulate  hymns — which 
survive  to-day  as  the  only  folklore  music  of 
America. 

Go  down,  Moses, 
Way  down  in  Egyp'  Ian'. 
Tell  ole  Pharaoh 
Le'  ma  people  go! 

Israel  was  in  Egyp'  Ian', 

Oppres'  so  hard  dey  could  not  stan'. 
Le'  ma  people  go! 

or  the  infinitely  pathetic  and  beautiful 

In  the  valley 
On  my  knees 
With  my  burden 
An'  my  Saviour 

I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray,  O  Lord, 
Couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 
O — way  down  yonder 

By  myself 
I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  19 

Chilly  waters 
In  the  Jordan, 
Crossing  over 
Into  Canaan, 

I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray,  0  Lord, 
Couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 
O — way  down  yonder 

By  myself 
I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 

Hallelujah! 
Troubles  over 
In  the  Kingdom 
With  my  Jesus. 

I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray,  O  Lord, 
Couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 
O — way  down  yonder 

By  myself 
I  couldn't  hear  nobody  pray. 

The  poor  slave  was  very  much — way  down  yon 
der  by  himself,  and  he  couldn't  hear  nobody 
pray.  Jesus  seemed  to  have  been  specially  born 
for  him — to  love  his  soul  when  none  other  was 
ready  to  love  it,  to  comfort  him  in  all  his  suf 
ferings,  and  to  promise  him  that  happy  heaven 
where  unabashed  the  old  woolly-head  can  sit  by 
Mary  and  "play  with  the  darling  Son,"  as  an 
other  "spiritual"  expresses  it. 

The  first  Negro  preachers  and  evangelists  had 
the  inevitable  persecution,  and  as  inevitably  the 
persecution  failed.  The  North  grew  very  sym 
pathetic,  and  Bibles  grew  as  plentiful  in  the 
South  as  dandelion  blossoms.  It  became  the 
unique  lesson  book  of  the  Negro.  It  alone  fed 
his  spiritual  consciousness.  He  obtained  at  once 
an  appreciation  of  its  worth  to  him  that  made 


20        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

it  his  greatest  treasure,  Iris  only  offset  against 
his  bondage.  He  learned  it  by  heart,  and  there 
came  to  be  a  greater  textual  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  among  the  Black  masses  than  among  any 
other  people  in  the  world.  It  is  so  to-day, 
though  it  is  fading.  The  spiritual  life  of  the 
Negro  became  as  it  were  an  answering  beacon 
to  the  fervor  of  the  Abolitionists  of  the  North, 
most  of  whom  were  passionate  Christians  of 
Puritan  type. 

The  South  grew  sulky,  grew  infinitely  sus 
picious  and  restive,  and  irritated  and  fearful. 
It  began  to  fear  a  general  slaves'  rising.  The 
numerical  superiority  of  the  Negroes  presented 
itself  to  the  mind  as  an  ever-growing  menace. 
The  idea  of  emancipation  was  fraught  with  the 
economic  ruin  it  implied.  It  is  difficult  now  to 
resurrect  the  mind  of  society  preceding  the 
time  of  the  great  Civil  War.  It  is  the  fashion 
to  emphasize  the  technical  aspect  of  the  quarrel 
of  North  and  South,  and  to  say  that  the  war  was 
fought  in  order  that  the  Union  might  be  pre 
served.  But  it  is  truer  to  say  that  it  was  fought 
because  the  South  wanted  to  secede.  And  the 
South  wished  to  secede  because  it  saw  more 
clearly  every  day  that  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  in  danger.  Every  month,  every  year,  saw 
its  special  occasions  of  irritation,  premonitory 
splashing  out  of  flame,  petty  explosions  and 
threats.  More  slaves  escaped  every  year.  The 
Underground  Railway,  so  called,  by  which  the 


THOUGHTS  ON  SLAVERY  21 

Friends  succored  the  poor  runaways  and 
brought  them  out  of  danger  and  distress  into 
the  sanctuary  of  the  North  grew  to  be  better 
and  better  organized.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
punishments  of  discovered  runaways  grew  more 
barbarous  and  more  public,  and  the  rage  of  the 
North  was  inflamed. 

Heroic  John  Brown  made  his  abortive  bid  to 
light  up  a  slaves'  insurrection  by  his  wild  ex 
ploit  of  Harper's  Ferry.  And  then  John 
Brown,  old  man  as  he  was,  of  apostolic  aspect 
and  fervor,  was  tried  and  condemned.  He  did 
not  fear  to  die.  But  he  wrote  to  his  children 
that  they  should  "  abhor  with  undying  hatred 
that  sum  of  all  villainies,  slavery, "  and  while 
he  was  being  led  to  the  gallows  he  handed  to  a 
bystander  his  last  words  and  testament — 

I,  John  Brown,  am  now  quite  certain  that 
the  crimes  of  this  guilty  land  will  never  be 
purged  away  but  with  blood.  I  had  as  I 
now  think  vainly  flattered  myself  that  with 
out  very  much  bloodshed  it  might  be 
done.  .  .  . 

And  in  his  ill-fitting  suit  and  trousers  and  loose 
carpet  slippers  John  Brown  was  hanged  silently 
and  solemnly,  and  all  the  troops  watching  him, 
even  stern  Stonewall  Jackson  himself,  were 
stricken  with  a  sort  of  premonitory  terror. 
Soon  came  the  great  war. 

And  the  slaves  were  made  free.  That  is  their 
story,  "Where  do  they  stand  to-day? 


n 

IN  VIRGINIA1 

BY  the  abolition  of  slavery  mankind  threw  off 
a  great  evil.  The  slave  owner  escaped  as  well 
as  the  slave.  For,  although  our  human  sympa 
thy  goes  more  readily  to  the  slaves  themselves, 
it  is  nevertheless  true  that  it  was  as  bad  for  the 
spirit  and  character  of  the  owners  as  for  those 
of  their  chattels.  To-day  in  America,  and  espe 
cially  in  the  South,  there  is  a  hereditary  taint 
in  the  mind  derived  from  slavery  and  it  is  to  be 
observed  in  the  descendants  of  the  masters  as 
much  as  in  the  descendants  of  the  slaves.  It 
would  be  a  mistake  to  think  of  this  American 
problem  as  exclusively  a  Negro  problem.  It  is 
as  necessary  to  study  the  white  people  as  the 
black.  The  children  of  the  owners  and  the  over 
seers  and  the  slave  drivers  are  not  the  same  as 
the  children  of  families  where  no  slaves  were 
ever  owned.  Mastery  of  men  and  power  over 
men  have  been  bred  in  their  blood.  That  in 
part  explains  the  character  of  that  section  of 
the  United  States  where  slaves  were  most 
owned,  and  the  brutality,  cruelty,  and  sensual 
ity  which  upon  occasion  disfigure  the  face  of  so 
ciety  in  1920.  The  old  dead  self  leers  out  with 

22 


IN  VIRGINIA  23 

strange  visage  from  the  new  self,  which  wishes 
to  be  different. 

If  you  see  a  white  man  in  New  Orleans  roll 
ing  his  quid  and  spitting  out  foul  brutality 
against  "niggers,"  you  will  often  find  that  his 
father  was  a  driver  on  a  plantation.  Or  if  in 
that  abnormal  way  so  characteristic  of  the 
South  you  hear  foul  sexual  talk  about  the 
Negroes  rolling  forth  from  a  lowbrow  in  Vicks- 
burg,  it  is  fairly  likely  that  he  is  full  of  strange 
black  lust  himself,  and  that  his  father  and 
grandfather  perchance  assaulted  promiscuously 
Negro  women  and  contributed  to  the  writing  of 
racial  shame  in  the  vast  bastardy  of  the  South. 
If  you  hear  a  man  urging  that  the  Negro  is  not 
a  human  being,  but  an  animal,  you  will  often 
find  that  he  himself  is  nearer  to  the  animal.  His 
fathers  before  him  held  that  the  Negroes  were 
animals  and  not  humans.  And,  believing  them 
animals,  they  yet  sinned  with  the  animals,  and 
so  brought  themselves  down  to  animal  level. 
You  see  a  crowd  of  white  men  near  Savannah. 
They  are  mostly  proud  of  their  English  origin. 
Yet  they  are  going  to  burn  a  Negro  alive  for  kill 
ing  a  sheriff.  How  is  it  possible  in  this  century  1 
It  is  possible  because  it  is  in  the  blood  of  the 
children.  They  crave  to  see  Uncle  Tom's  flesh 
crackling  in  the  flames  and  hear  his  hysterical 
howls.  Their  fathers  did.  Their  children 's  chil 
dren  will  do  the  same  unless  it  is  stamped  out 
by  the  will  of  society  as  a  whole, 


24        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Of  course  the  inheritance  of  evil  is  not  the 
same  in  all  classes  of  society.  Everyone  inherits 
something  from  the  baleful  institution,  but  not 
everyone  the  same.  The  mind  of  the  coarse 
White  is  crude  and  terrible,  and  the  mind  of  the 
refined  is  certainly  different.  One  should  per 
haps  be  more  lenient  to  the  poor,  and  more 
urgent  in  criticism  of  the  rich.  For  all  stand 
together,  and  the  disease  is  one  not  merely  of 
individuals,  but  of  the  whole.  The  rich  and  cul 
tured  condone  the  brutality  of  the  masses 
because  they  have  a  point  of  view  which  is 
incompatible  with  theirs. 

Those  whose  ancestors  treated  the  slaves  well, 
claim  to  be  immune  from  all  criticism.  There 
were  in  the  old  days  many  kind  and  considerate 
masters  to  whom  the  Negroes  were  wonderfully 
attached.  But  even  these  masters  suffered  from 
the  institution  of  slavery,  as  any  rich  man  suf 
fers  from  dependence  on  retainers  and  flunkeys 
and  servants  whom  he  practically  owns,  as  all 
suffer  who  are  divorced  from  the  reality  of  earn 
ing  their  living  as  equals  with  their  neighbors. 
And  their  children,  brought  up  amidst  the  sub 
missive  servility  of  the  Negroes,  grew  to  be  little 
monarchs  or  chiefs,  and  always  to  expect  other 
people  to  do  things  for  them.  Where  ordinary 
white  children  learn  to  ask  and  say  "please," 
they  learned  to  order  and  command  and  to 
threaten  with  punishment.  The  firm  lip  of  the 
educated  Southerner  has  an  expression  which 


IN  VIKGINIA  25 

is  entirely  military.  In  the  army,  one  asks  for 
nothing  of  inferiors  except  courage  on  the  day 
of  battle.  All  is  ordered.  And  the  power  to 
order  and  to  be  obeyed  rapidly  changes  the  ex 
pression  of  the  features.  It  has  changed  the 
physiognomy  of  the  aristocracy  in  the  Southern 
section  of  the  United  States.  You  can  classify 
all  faces  into  those  who  say  "  please "  and  those 
who  do  not,  and  the  children  of  the  slave  owners 
are  mostly  in  the  second  category.  Unqualified 
mastership;  indifference  to  dirt  and  misery  in 
the  servant  class;  callous  disregard  of  others' 
pain,  or  pleasure  taken  in  their  pain ;  slaves  said 
to  be  animals  and  not  human  beings,  and  the 
superadded  sin  of  bestiality,  using  a  lower  caste 
to  satiate  coarse  lusts  which  the  upper  caste 
could  not  satisfy;  the  buying  and  selling  of 
creatures  who  could  otherwise  only  belong  to 
God — all  these  terrible  sins  or  sinful  conditions 
are  visited  on  the  third  and  fourth  generation 
of  those  who  hate,  though  as  must  always  be 
said,  God's  mercy  is  shown  to  thousands  of 
them  that  love  Him  and  keep  His  eternal  com 
mandments. 

The  children  of  the  slaves  also  inherit  evil 
from  their  slavery.  The  worst  of  these  are  re 
sentment  and  a  desire  for  revenge.  Doubtless, 
slavery  sensualized  the  Negro.  He  was  the  pas 
sive  receptacle  for  the  white  man's  lusts.  Most 
of  the  Negroes  arrived  in  America  more  morally 
pure  than  they  are  to-day.  As  savages,  they 


26   THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

were  nearer  to  nature.  Mentally  and  spiritually 
they  are  much  higher  now,  but  they  have 
learned  more  about  sin,  and  sin  is  written  in 
most  of  their  bodies.  It  is  sharpest  in  the  mulat- 
toes  and  "near  whites " — those  whose  ancestors 
were  longest  in  slavery  have  the  worst  marks 
of  it  in  them.  The  state  of  the  last  slaves  to  be 
imported  into  America  is  much  simpler  and 
happier  than  the  rest.  The  moral  character  of 
the  black  Negroes  is  also  simpler  than  that  of 
the  pallid  ones.  But  this  is  anticipating  my 
story.  I  set  off  to  study  the  ex-slave  because 
the  civilized  world  is  threatened  by  what  may 
be  called  a  vast  slaves'  war.  In  Eussia  the 
grand-children  of  the  serfs  have  overthrown 
those  who  were  once  their  masters,  and  have 
taken  possession  of  the  land  and  the  state;  in 
Germany  Spartacus  has  arisen  to  overthrow  the 
military  slavery  of  Prussianism;  and  the  wage 
slaves  are  rising  in  every  land.  There  is  a  vast 
resentment  of  lower  orders  against  upper 
orders,  of  the  proletarians,  who  have  nothing 
and  are  nothing,  against  those  who  through 
inheritance  or  achievement  have  reached  the  rul 
ing  class.  The  Negroes  are  in  no  way  to  be  com 
pared  to  the  Russians  in  intellectual  or  spiritual 
capacity:  they  are  racially  so  much  more  unde 
veloped.  Much  less  divided  Russian  serf  from 
Russian  master  than  slave  from  planter.  But  it 
is  just  because  the  contrast  between  the  Ameri 
can  white  man  and  American  black  man  is  so 


IN  VIEGINIA  27 

sharp  and  the  quarrel  so  elemental  in  character 
that  it  has  seemed  worth  while  to  explore  the 
American  situation.  And  if  the  struggle  is  more 
elemental,  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  there  is  not 
more  at  stake.  American  industrialism  is  rav 
aged  by  waves  of  violent  revolutionary  ferment. 
If  ill-treatment  of  the  Blacks  should  at  last  force 
the  twelve  millions  of  them  to  make  common 
cause  with  a  revolutionary  mob,  polite  America 
might  be  overwhelmed  and  the  larger  portion 
of  the  world  be  lost — if  not  of  the  world,  at 
least  of  that  world  we  call  civilization. 

What,  then,  of  the  Negro  ?  What  is  he  doing, 
what  does  he  look  like,  what  does  he  feel  to-day? 
It  is  impossible  to  learn  much  from  current 
books,  so,  following  the  dictum:  "What  is  re 
markable,  learn  to  look  at  it  with  your  own 
eyes, ' '  I  went  to  America  to  see. 

I  chose  Olmsted  as  my  model.  In  1853  Olm- 
sted  made  a  famous  journey  through  the  sea 
board  States,  holding  up  his  mirror  to  the  life 
of  the  South  in  slavery  days.  The  book  which 
records  his  impressions  and  reflections  is  one 
of  the  most  valuable  in  American  literature. 
This  great  student  of  nature  went  methodically 
through  Virginia,  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia, 
Alabama  and  Louisiana.  A  pilgrimage  not  un 
like  his  has  to  be  repeated  to-day  to  ascertain 
how  the  ex-slave  is,  what  he  is  doing,  how  the 
experiment  of  his  liberation  has  prospered,  and 
what  is  his  future  in  the  American  Common- 


28        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

wealth.  But  as  America  is  so  much  more  de 
veloped  in  1920,  and  more  problematical  in  the 
varied  fields  of  her  national  life,  it  has  been 
necessary  to  make  a  broader,  if  more  rapid, 
survey  of  the  whole  South.  I  made  the  follow 
ing  journey  in  America:  I  went  slowly  south 
from  New  York  to  Trenton,  Philadelphia,  Bal 
timore,  and  "Washington,  staying  some  days  at 
each  and  seeing  America  grow  darker  as  it  vis 
ibly  does  when  you  watch  faces  from  trolley  car 
windows  going  from  town  to  town  southward. 
I  was  on  South  Street,  in  Philadelphia ;  watched 
the  well-paid  artisans  and  laborers  at  the  docks 
of  Baltimore,  visited  there  the  polite  homes  of 
the  colored  working  class,  cleaner,  richer,  cozier 
than  that  of  the  average  British  workman  on 
Tyneside  or  London  Docks.  I  climbed  the  Lin 
coln  Heights  to  talk  to  Nanny  Burroughs  and 
see  her  good  training  college  for  colored  women 
there;  was  at  Howard  University  and  talked 
with  black  and  gentle  Professor  Miller  and  with 
the  pale  and  intellectual  Emmett  Scott.  I  sailed 
down  the  Potomac  to  Norfolk,  Virginia,  Uncle 
Sam's  great  naval  base,  going  to  be  the  greatest 
of  its  kind  in  the  world;  crossed  to  Newport 
News  and  talked  with  black  rivetters  and  chip- 
pers  and  others  in  the  shipbuilding  yards ;  then, 
following  the  way  of  the  first  English  colonists 
and  also  the  first  Negro  slaves,  went  up  the 
James  Eiver  to  Jamestown,  and  on  to  Eich- 
mond,  the  fine  capital  of  the  Old  Dominion.  I 


IN  VIRGINIA  29 

traveled  to  Lynchburg  and  its  tobacco  indus 
tries,  went  from  thence  to  " sober"  Knoxville, 
investigating  the  race  riot  there  and  the  atti 
tude  of  Tennessee.  From  Knoxville  I  went  to 
Chattanooga  and  Birmingham,  in  each  of  which 
great  steel  centers  I  met  the  leading  Negroes 
and  investigated  conditions.  I  was  at  Atlanta, 
and  walked  across  Georgia  to  the  sea,  following 
Sherman.  A  three-hundred-mile  walk  through 
the  cotton  fields  and  forests  of  Georgia  was 
necessary  in  order  to  get  a  broad  section  of  the 
mass  of  the  people.  The  impression  left  behind 
by  Sherman's  army  which  laid  waste  the  coun 
try  and  freed  all  the  Negroes  there  gave  also 
something  of  the  historical  atmosphere  of  the 
South.  From  Savannah,  which  was  the  point  on 
the  sea  to  which  General  Sherman  attained,  I 
went  to  Brunswick  and  Jacksonville,  thence 
to  Pensacola,  and  on  from  Florida  to  New 
Orleans  and  the  Gulf  plantations.  I  journeyed 
up  the  Mississippi  on  a  river  steamer,  stayed 
at  the  Negro  city  of  Mound  Bayou,  was  at  Vicks- 
burg  and  Greenville  and  Memphis,  and  then  re 
paired  once  more  to  the  contrasting  North. 

Crossing  the  Mason-Dixon  line  was  rather  a 
magical  and  wonderful  event  for  me.  After  all, 
the  North,  with  its  mighty  cities  and  industrial 
ized  populations,  is  merely  prose  to  one  who 
comes  from  England.  Pennsylvania  is  a  projec 
tion  of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire,  New  York  is 
a  projection  of  London,  and  massive  Washing- 


30        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

ton  has  something  of  the  oppressiveness  of  Eng 
lish  park  drives  and  Wellingtonias.  But  south 
ward  one  divines  another  and  a  better  country. 
It  has  a  glamour;  it  lures.  There  the  orange 
grows  and  there  are  palms;  there  is  a  hotter 
sun  and  brighter  flowers.  Human  beings  there, 
one  surmises,  have  a  more  romantic  disposition 
and  warmer  imagination.  Reposing  on  the  vast 
feudalism  of  Negro  labor  there  is  a  more  stately 
way  of  living,  life  is  more  spacious.  And  at  the 
resorts  on  the  coast  of  ^  Florida  and  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  a  great  number  of  people  live  for  pleas 
ure  and  happiness,  and  not  for  business  and 
ambition. 

I  journeyed  on  a  white-painted  steamer  in 
the  evening  down  the  Potomac  to  Old  Point 
Comfort,  leaving  behind  me  the  noise  and  glare 
of  Washington  and  the  hustle  of  Northern 
American  civilization.  It  was  the  crossing  of 
a  frontier — without  show  of  passports  or  exam 
ination  of  trunks,  the  passing  to  a  new  country, 
with  a  different  language  and  different  ways. 
The  utter  silence  of  the  river  was  a  great  con 
trast  to  the  clangor  of  the  streets  of  Philadel 
phia  and  Baltimore  and  the  string  of  towns  I 
had  been  passing  through  on  my  way  South. 
Sunset  was  reflected  deep  in  the  stream,  and 
mists  crept  over  the  surface  of  the  water.  Then 
the  moon  silvered  down  on  our  course,  my  cabin 
window  was  full  open  and  the  moon  looked  in. 
I  lay  in  a  capacious  sort  of  cottage  bed  and  was 


IN  VIRGINIA  31 

enchanted  by  the  idea  of  going  to  "Dixie,"  of 
which  we  had  all  sung  so  much;  and  the  soft 
Southern  airs  and  night  and  the  throbbing  of 
the  river  steamer  gliding  over  the  placid  water 
gave  an  assurance  of  some  new  refreshment  of 
spirit.  With  a  quaint  irrelevance  the  whole 
British  army,  and  indeed  the  nation,  had  been 
singing  "Dixie"  songs  throughout  the  war — 
"Just  try  to  picture  me,  way  down  in  Ten 
nessee"  we  were  always  asking  of  one  another. 
Now,  behold,  the  war  was  over,  and  it  might  be 
possible  to  go  there  and  forget  a  little  about  all 
that  sordid  and  tumultuous  European  quarrel. 
All  night  the  river  whispered  its  name  and 
lulled  the  boat  to  sleep.  Dawn  on  the  broad 
serenity  of  the  waters  at  Old  Point  Comfort 
was  utterly  unlike  the  North,  from  which  I  had 
come,  and  the  last  ten  days  of  jangling  trolley 
cars  hustling  along  shoppy  streets.  A  morning 
star  shone  in  the  pale-blue  sky,  lighting  as  it 
were  a  vestal  lamp  over  the  coast,  and  we  looked 
upon  Virginia.  As  the  sun  rose,  vapor  closed 
in  the  scene.  "We  made  the  port  of  Norfolk  in  a 
mist  which  seemed  each  moment  getting 
warmer.  The  chill  winds  of  October  were  due 
in  the  North,  but  Virginia  was  immune.  Dur 
ing  the  week  I  spent  in  the  city  of  Norfolk  and 
on  Hampton  Eoads  it  did  not  get  less  than  85 
in  the  shade,  even  at  night.  The  weather,  how 
ever,  was  hotter  than  is  usual  even  in  Eastern 
Virginia  at  that  time  of  the  year. 


32        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

I  obtained  the  impression  of  a  great  city 
rather  cramped  for  want  of  space,  and  in  this 
I  suppose  I  was  right.  By  all  accounts  Norfolk 
has  trebled  its  population  during  the  war,  and 
needs  to  have  its  center  rebuilt  spaciously  and 
worthily.  When  Olmsted  came  through  in  1853 
he  records  that  Norfolk  was  a  dirty,  low,  ill- 
arranged  town,  having  no  lyceum  or  public 
library,  no  gardens,  no  art  galleries,  and  though 
possessing  two  "Bethels"  having  no  " Sea 
men  's  Home"  and  no  place  of  healthy  amuse 
ment.  He  rather  makes  fun  of  a  Lieutenant 
Maury,  who  in  those  days  was  having  a  vision 
of  the  Norfolk  of  the  future,  and  saw  it  one  of 
the  greatest  ports  in  the  world,  being  midmost 
point  of  the  Atlantic  coast  and  having  an  inner 
and  an  outer  harbor  with  perfect  facilities  of 
ingress  and  egress  in  all  weathers. 

To-day  Lieutenant  Maury's  vision  has  proved 
prophetic.  In  the  maps  of  the  new  America 
which  is  coming,  Norfolk  is  destined  to  be 
printed  in  ever  larger  letters.  The  war  showed 
the  way.  The  determination  of  America  to  be 
worthily  armed  at  sea  made  it  certain,  and  the 
future  of  Norfolk,  with  Hampton  Eoads  and 
Newport  News,  is  to  be  the  primary  naval  base 
of  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  military  and  naval 
activities  of  Norfolk  during  the  war  were  very 
important.  Eastern  Virginia  was  a  great  train 
ing  ground,  and  Norfolk  the  main  port  of  em 
barkation  of  troops  for  Europe.  Shipbuilding 


IN  VIRGINIA  33 

and  naval  construction  also  were  in  full  swing. 
Great  numbers  of  laborers,  especially  Negroes, 
seem  to  have  been  attracted.  The  number  no 
doubt  is  exaggerated,  but  the  colored  people 
there  number  themselves  now  at  one  hundred 
thousand.  They  have  been  attracted  by  the  high 
wages  and  the  record  of  Norfolk  for  immunity 
from  mob  violence.  A  lynching  is  not  in  any 
one's  remembrance.  Trouble  might  have  broken 
out  during  the  war,  but  Norfolk  possessed  an 
excellent  "City  Manager "  who  was  always 
prepared. 

On  one  occasion  some  five  hundred  sailors  set 
out  to  "clean  up  colored  town,"  but  they  were 
met  by  an  adequate  force  of  armed  police  and 
marines  and  changed  their  minds.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  mob  of  colored  crews  and  troops  started 
an  attack  on  the  town  jail,  but  a  few  armed 
men  quickly  dispersed  them. 

I  noticed  at  once  that  the  Blacks  of  Norfolk 
were  very  much  more  black  than  those  of  Wash 
ington  or  New  York.  Their  hair  was  more 
matted.  Their  eyes  were  more  goggly.  They 
were  more  odorous.  When  the  black  chamber 
maid  had  been  in  my  room  for  two  minutes  it 
was  filled  with  a  pungent  and  sickening  odor. 
The  elevator  reeked  with  this  odor.  It  was  the 
characteristic  smell  of  my  first  Southern  hotel. 
I  noticed  it  on  the  trolley  cars.  It  was  wafted 
among  the  vegetables  and  fruit  of  the  city 


34        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

market.  Indeed,  the  whole  town  had  it.  I  grew 
used  to  it  after  a  while  and  was  told  by  those 
who  were  liberal  of  mind  that  every  race  had 
,  its  smell.  For  instance,  to  certain  tribes  of 
Indians  there  was  said  to  be  nothing  so  disgust 
ing  as  the  smell  of  a  perfectly  clean  white  man. 
Even  when  a  man  who  has  a  bath  every  day 
and  a  change  into  perfectly  fresh  linen  came 
into  his  presence,  the  Indian  felt  sick.  Negroes 
were  supposed  to  notice  the  smell  of  white  men, 
but  were  too  subservient  or  polite  to  remark 
upon  it.  There  is,  however,  a  good  deal  of  doubt 
about  this  point  in  human  natural  history.  The 
smell  that  we  have  is  the  smell  of  the  animal  in 
us,  and  not  of  the  more  human  or  spiritual  part 
of  us.  One  knows  the  smell  of  the  bear  and  the 
fox,  and  that  the  wolf  has  a  stronger  smell  than 
the  dog,  and  the  wild  cat  than  the  domestic  cat. 
Bloodhounds  are  said  to  follow  the  trail  of  the 
Negro  more  readily  than  that  of  the  white  man, 
and  it  might  reasonably  be  argued  that  the  ter 
rible  odor  of  the  Blacks  is  due  to  their  greater 
proximity  to  an  animal  stage  in  development. 
Be  that  as  it  may,  I  quite  see  that  this  odor  is 
something  which  the  Negro  will  have  difficulty 
in  living  down.  I  learned  that  he  was  very  sen 
sitive  about  it,  as  about  his  kinky  hair,  and  that 
the  more  educated  and  refined  he  became  the 
more  he  strove  to  get  rid  of  these  marks.  That 
explained  to  me  why  in  all  those  happy  streets 
of  prosperous  Baltimore  at  every  corner  there 


IN  VIRGINIA  35 

was  a  "Beauty  Parlor,"  where  specialists  plied 
Mme.  Walker's  "Anti-Kink,"  and  why  the 
prosperous  Negro  workingman  demanded  a 
bathroom  and  hot  water  in  his  home.  The  rea 
son  why  the  Blacks  seem  blacker  in  the  South 
seems  to  be  because  they  are  segregated  in 
"Jim  Crow"  sections  of  the  cars,  and  none  of 
the  black  comes  off  on  white  people,  but  is  on 
the  contrary  intensified  by  the  shadow  of  black 
looks. 

The  colored  folk  here,  moreover,  seemed  to 
talk  more  in  the  way  they  are  supposed  to  talk, 
and  are  not  mincing  the  American  tongue,  as  in 
the  North.  Outside  my  room  one  maid  says: 
"You's  a  fool,  sister  Ann."  "Yas,  sister  Sue, 
dat's  'zackly  what  I  am,"  says  the  other,  and 
laughs  and  repeats  it  as  if  it  were  the  greatest 
joke — "Dat's  'zackly  what  I  am." 

I  went  into  the  streets  to  seek  the  Eev.  B , 

a  leading  colored  preacher  of  Norfolk.  I  stood 
in  wonderment  before  a  whitewashed  chapel 
with  large  china-blue  stained-glass  windows 
luridly  depicting  our  Lord's  baptism  and  the 
opening  of  the  heavens  over  the  Jordan.  A 
grizzled  old  Negro  in  a  cotton  shirt  stopped 
in  front  of  me  and  exclaimed  insinuatingly, 
"You's  looking  at  cullud  folks'  church;  ain't  it 
bewtiful?"  I  took  the  opportunity  to  ask  for 

the  Eev.  B .   He  led  me  along  and  pointed 

up  a  flight  of  wooden  steps  to  a  sufficiently 
handsome  dwelling  place. 


36        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Rev.  B on  seeing  me  had  a  gleam  of  doubt 

on  Ms  face  for  perhaps  one  second,  but  only  for 
a  second.  One  instinctively  felt  that  here  in 
Virginia,  where  the  color  line  is  sharply  drawn, 
no  white  man  is  likely  to  present  himself  on 
terms  of  equality  to  a  black  man  without  the 
desire  to  patronize  or  some  guile  of  some  kind. 
It  is  rare  for  any  white  man  to  call  upon  any 
educated  black  man,  and  very  rarely  indeed  that 
he  comes  to  him  in  a  straightforward,  honest, 

and  sincere  manner.  So  the  Eev.  B showed 

doubt  for  a  moment,  and  then  suddenly^  after  a 
few  words,  his  doubt  vanished.  In  my  subse 
quent  journeying  and  adventures  it  was  always 
thus — doubt  at  first  glance,  and  then,  rapidly, 
the  awakening  of  implicit  trust  and  confidence. 
I  personally  found  the  Negroes  nearly  always 

friendly.  Mr.  B was  a  sparely-colored,  lean, 

intellectual  young  man,  a  capable  white  man  in 
a  veil  of  dark  skin.  He  was  all  but  white.  I 
looked  at  his  webby  hands — what  a  pity,  it 
seemed,  that,  being  so  near,  he  could  not  be 
altogether.  And  yet  I  realized  that  in  such  men 
and  women,  no  matter  how  fair  they  be,  the 
psyche  is  different.  There  is  something  in 
tensely  and  insolubly  Negro  in  even  the  nearest 
of  near  whites. 

Eev.  B took  me  all  over  the  city.  He  was 

evidently  extremely  well  known  to  the  colored 
people,  for  our  conversation  was  intertwined 
with  a  ceaseless • 


IN  VIRGINIA  37 

"How  do,  Bevrun?" 

"How  do!" 

He  showed  me  his  charmingly  built  church 
(not  that  with  the  china-blue  windows),  con 
trived  in  graceful  horseshoe  style,  with  gradu 
ated,  sloping  gallery,  richly-stained  windows, 
and  a  vast  array  of  red-cushioned  seats.  A 
black  organist  was  discoursing  upon  the  organ, 
and  a  voluminous,  dusky  charwoman  with  large 
arms  was  cleaning  and  dusting  among  the  pews 
below. 

There  sat  under  Eev.  B every  Sunday  a 

fair  share  of  the  quality  colored  folk  of  Norfolk. 
"I  am  glad  that  you  have  come  to  me,  because 
I  can  show  you  an  up-to-date  and  proper 
church, "  said  the  pastor.  "There  are  nine  or 
ten  like  this  in  Norfolk,  but  when  a  stranger 
asks  to  see  a  Negro  church  he 's  usually  taken  to 
some  out-of-the-way  tabernacle  of  the  Holy 
Folks  or  some  queer  sect  where  everyone  is 
shouting  Hallelujah,  and  it  all  seems  very 
funny.  But  if  you'll  come  to  me  on  Sunday 
morning  you'll  hear  a  service  which  for  dig 
nity  and  spiritual  comeliness  will  compare  with 
any  white  man's  service  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  You  mustn't  think  of  us  as  still  cotton 
pickers  and  minstrels  and  nothing  more.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  Negro  wealth  and  refinement 
in  this  city  of  Norfolk." 

"How  do  you  get  on  with  white  ministers? " 
I  asked.  "Do  you  work  together?" 


38        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

"Oh,  white  ministers  do  not  recognize  black 
ones  on  the  street, "  said  he.  "My  neighbor,  for 
instance,  knows  me  well  enough  at  the  Baptist 
Conference,  and  by  his  talk  I  see  he  knows  all 
abont  my  church.  But  here  in  the  city  he  can 
not  afford  to  know  me.  Yet  he  has  not  half  so 
many  worshippers  at  his  church,  nor  do  they 
pay  him  half  the  salary  which  my  people  pay 
me.  He  dare  not  spend  on  his  clothes  what  I 
spend;  he  has  not  such  a  well-appointed  home. 
Yet  if  we  meet  on  the  street — he  doesn't  know 
me." 

This  was  evidently  a  sore  point. 

We  went  to  Brown's  Bank.  Brown  has  gone 
to  Philadelphia  to  start  a  second  Negro  bank. 
The  first  one  has  been  in  existence  ten  years. 
Brown  is  a  financier,  and  something  more  than 
that.  For  he  encourages  the  Negro  theatres  and 
is  greatly  helping  his  people  along  their  way. 
We  also  visited  the  polite  edifice  of  the  Tide 
water  Bank  and  Trust  Company,  which  has  been 
built  since  the  Armistice.  "It  was  contracted 
for  by  Negroes  and  built  by  Negroes  alone," 
said  the  treasurer  proudly — a  blunt,  bullet- 
headed,  whimsical  fellow,  with  an  intense  desire 
to  push  business  and  to  hustle.  All  the  clerks 
and  stenographers  were  colored.  Each  teller 
sat  in  his  steel  cage  for  which  he  alone  held  the 
key.  All  the  latest  banking  machinery  was  in 
operation,  including  the  coin  separator  and 
counter  and  wrapper,  and  the  adding  machine. 


IN  VIEGINIA  39 

I  worked  an  imaginary  account  under  colored 
direction,  using  the  adding  machine,  and  gave 
assent  to  its  infallibility.  They  showed  me  their 
strong  room,  and  I  peeped  at  their  cash  re 
serves.  The  treasurer  and  "Bevrun"  then  took 
me  up  into  a  high  mountain,  namely,  the  Board 
Boom,  which  was  in  a  gallery  overlooking  the 
whole  of  the  working  part  of  the  bank. 

"My  motto,"  said  the  treasurer,  "is,  *  Folks 
who  only  work  for  us  as  long  as  they  are  paid 
will  find  they  are  only  paid  for  what  they  have 
done. '  "We  work  here  till  we  are  through,  be  it 
eleven  or Ttwelve  o  'clock  at  night.  The  man  who 
isn't  hard  is  not  for  us." 

We  talked  about  the  Negro. 

"He  must  win  freedom,"  said  the  banker. 
"It  is  never  a  bequest,  but  a  conquest.  You 
can't  have  redemption  without  the  shedding  of 
the  Precious  Blood,  can  you,  Beverend?  I  am 
fighting  for  the  Negro  by  succeeding  in  business. 
There's  only  one  thing  that  can  bring  him  re 
spect,  and  that  is  achievement. ' ' 

These  were  his  most  impressive  words.  We 
walked  out  of  the  new  bank. 

"He  has  his  knock-about  car  and  his  limou 
sine  and  a  finely  appointed  house  and  a  gov 
erness  for  his  children,"  said  Bev.  B ,  as 

we  footed  it  once  more  in  the  sun-bathed  street. 
"But  of  course  you  can  be  a  millionaire  to-day 
and  it  won't  help  you  to  marry  even  the  poor 
est  white  girl.  Or  you  can  be  a  Negro  heir- 


40        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

ess,  but  no  amount  of  wealth  will  induce  a  white 
man  to  marry  a  colored  girl.  For  the  matter  of 
that,  though,  there  are  Negroes  so  white  you 
couldn't  tell  the  difference,  and  we've  got  plenty 
to  choose  from  if  our  tastes  lie  that  way.  If  a 
Negro  wants  to  marry  a  white,  he  can  find  plenty 
within  his  own  race." 

Eev.  B was  himself  married  to  a  woman 

who  could  pass  as  white,  in  Southern  Europe, 
and  his  children  were  little  white  darlings  with 
curly  hair.  We  hailed  a  heavy  l '  F  and  D ' '  car. 
I  will  not  mention  the  actual  name  of  the  build. 
A  young  colored  dandy  was  sitting  in  it.  "You 
see  this  car?"  said  Eeverend.  "It  belongs  to 

Dr.  E .  It's  an  'F  and  D.'  In  many  places 

the  agents  will  not  sell  this  build  of  car  to  a 
Negro,  even  for  cash  down." 

"Why  is  that?" 

"Well,  it's  a  fine  type  of  car,  and  rich  white 
men  in  a  city  don't  care  to  see  a  colored  man 
going  about  in  one  exactly  the  same.  An  agent 
would  lose  business  if  he  sold  them  to  Negroes. 
What's  more,  whether  he  lost  business  or  not, 
he  wouldn't  do  it.  Here  in  Virginia,  however, 
there  is  not  so  much  prejudice,  but  when  you  go 
further  South  you'll  find  it." 

We  got  into  the  car.  The  young  dandy  proved 
to  be  a  doctor's  assistant,  a  sort  of  apprentice 
to  the  great  physician  we  were  about  to  meet. 
He  had  graduated  at  Fisk,  which  he  called  the 
Negro  Athens.  He  was  dressed  in  a  well-cut 


IN  VIRGINIA  41 

suit  of  gray,  a  rich  necktie,  and  a  felt  hat  which 
was  in  excellent  taste.  His  complexion  was  of 
the  cocoa-brown,  highly-polished  type,  and  his 
large  eyes  were  quiet  and  reflective,  as  if  un- 
awakened  to  the  joy  of  life.  Politely  chatting 
to  us,  he  guided  the  beautiful  car  along  some  of 
the  most  terribly  rutty  and  broken  streets. 

"We  pay  equal  taxes, "  said  he,  "but  because 
colored  people  live  in  these  streets  the  city 
won't  repair  the  roads.  They  are  all  rich 
people  living  in  these  houses,  all  Negroes.  Sev 
eral  of  them  own  cars.  .  .  .  Now  look  on  the 
other  hand  at  this  street.  It's  a  white  street, 
all  smoothly  repaired.  What  a  beautiful  sur 
face;  see  the  difference!"  Eev.  B urged 

this  point  also.  It  was  a  striking  example  of 
inequality,  and  one  that  makes  a  strong  appeal. 

Dr.  E proved  to  be  a  rich  practitioner 

living  in  a  delightful  villa  with  polished  floors 
and  a  French  neatness  and  charm  in  the  furni 
ture  and  decorations.  The  sun  blinds  were  all 
down,  and  a  pleasant  creamy  light  was  diffused 
upon  his  books  and  pictures  and  silk-uphol 
stered  divan.  He  was  very  busy,  but  said  he 
could  always  spare  a  few  moments  from  his 
profession  if  it  were  a  question  of  helping  his 
race,  and  he  thought  nothing  could  help  the 
Negroes  more  than  a  dispassionate  review  of 
their  situation  by  a  white  man  who  could  bring 
it  not  merely  before  America,  but  before  the 
world.  He  had  more  patients  than  he  could 


42        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

deal  with,  all  Negroes,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  Jews.  The  Jews  have  no  prejudice,  and  are 
ready  to  be  attended  by  a  good  doctor,  whatever 
the  color  of  his  skin,  which  is  a  point  in  any 
case  in  favor  of  the  Jews.  For  a  long  while  the 
Negroes  distrusted  their  own  doctors,  and 
thought  that  only  a  white  man  could  possibly 
have  the  skill  to  treat  them.  But  a  later  genera 
tion  has  discovered  that  their  own  folk  have  an 
excellent  grasp  of  medicine.  My  further  ac 
quaintance  with  a  considerable  number  of  col 
ored  doctors  in  the  South  has  led  me  to  the 
conclusion  that  their  temperament  suits  them 
admirably.  They  make  good  doctors.  What  is 
more,  they  naturally  understand  the  Negro's 
body  and  constitution  and  nervous  system  bet 
ter  than  the  white  man,  and  the  pathology  of 
the  Negro  is  very  different  from  that  of  the 
white  man.  The  white  doctor  as  yet  has  not 
given  much  separate  study  to  the  Negro 's  body 
—though  it  is  certainly  very  different  from 
ours  in  many  ways.  He  rs  inclined  perhaps  to 
be  a  little  brutal  and  offhand  with  Negro 
patients — and  they  certainly  are  tiresome,  with 
their  superstitious  fear  of  ill  health  and  evil 
eyes,  and  what  not.  This  impatience  has  helped 
the  colored  practitioner.  Negroes,  like  other 
people,  go  where  they  are  best  treated,  and  the 
medical  attendance  upon  a  hundred  thousand 
people  could  make  many  doctors  rich. 

In  the  old  slavery  days  the  Negroes  were  just 


IN  VIRGINIA  43 

a  broad  base  where  all  were  equal.  To-day  the 
"race"  has  lifted  up  an  intelligent  and  pro 
fessional  class.  The  working  Negro  population 
of  Norfolk  could  lift  up  its  intellectual  apex 
of  minister,  doctor,  and  banker,  and  make  them 
comparatively  rich  men,  and  give  them  all  the 
show  of  luxury  and  culture  which  would  have 
been  the  lot  of  white  men  in  similar  positions. 
So  the  broad  base  of  slavery  grows  to  be  a  pyra 
mid  of  freedom. 

Dr.  E was  a  shrewd,  capable,  little  human 

mountain.  He  said,  "I  think  the  time  has  come 
for  the  Negro  to  amass  wealth;  it's  the  only 
thing  that  counts  in  America. "  He  thought  the 
League  of  Nations  might  help  the  Negro  if  its 
representatives  ever  met  at  Washington.  There 
would  be  Frenchmen  and  Englishmen  and  Ital 
ians,  and,  being  so  near  to  the  South,  it  would 
be  a  shame  to  America  if  lynchings  took  place 
while  they  were  sitting.  As  it  was,  the  Negro 
South  was  a  sort  of  skeleton  cupboard  which 
must  not  be  exposed. 

From  him  I  learned  first  that  the  Negro  had 
not  access  to  the  Carnegie  libraries  in  the  South. 
I  was  surprised.  Up  at  Baltimore,  in  the  North, 
I  was  talking  to  a  librarian,  and  he  averred 
that  the  Negroes  used  the  public  library  much 
more  than  white  people,  and  that  there  were  so 
many  darkies  that  Whites  did  not  care  to  go. 
But  I  travel  such  a  very  short  distance  South, 
and  I  find  no  Negro  admitted  at  all. 


44       THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

"Surely  that  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the 
Carnegie  grants, "  said  I. 

"Yes,  for  Carnegie  was  a  good  friend  to  the 

Negro.  But  so  it  is,"  said  Dr.  E .  "And 

I  do  not  think  Negroes  should  agitate  about  it. 
It  would  be  better  for  Negroes  to  build  their 
own  libraries.  We  shall  have  to  do  so.  But  we 
don't  want  to  intrude  where  we're  not  wanted. " 

He  told  me  what  he  considered  the  most  thrill 
ing  moment  of  his  life.  He  was  out  with  a  friend 
at  midnight  watching  the  posting  of  election  re 
sults,  when  suddenly  a  "lewd  woman "  came 
out  of  a  house  door,  screaming  and  waving  her 
arms.  She  made  right  for  them,  and  they  were 
in  terror  lest  she  should  fall  down  at  their  feet 
or  start  reviling  them.  Fortunately,  they  had 
the  presence  of  mind  not  to  run  away  from  her, 
or  they  might  have  been  lynched  by  the  crowd. 

The  worthy  doctor  took  us  out  and  drove  us 
all  over  the  city,  heartily  apologizing  that  he 
could  not  ask  me  to  have  any  meal  with  his 
wife  and  himself.  ' '  For,  although  you  may  have 
no  prejudice,  it  would  not  be  safe  for  either  of 
us  if  it  were  known."  Which  was  indeed  so. 
Throughout  the  whole  of  the  South  it  is  impos 
sible  to  eat  or  drink  with  a  colored  man  or 
woman. 

My  chief  way  of  finding  people  to  whom  I 
had  introductions  was  by  reference  to  the  city 
directory.  Here  I  found  that  all  colored  people 
were  marked  with  a  star — as  much  as  to  say, 


IN  VIEGINIA  45 

" Watch  out;  this  party's  colored. "  White 
women  were  indicated  as  "Mrs."  or  "Miss," 
but  colored  women  always  as  plain  "Sarah 
Jones"  or  "Betty  Thompson,"  or  whatever  the 
name  might  be,  without  any  prefix.  This  I  dis 
covered  'to  be  one  of  many  small  grievances  of 
the  Negro  population,  akin  to  that  of  not  having 
their  roads  mended  though  they  pay  taxes,  and 
being  obliged  to  take  back  seats  behind  a  straw 
screen  in  the  trolley  cars. 

It  was  a  novel  impression  in  the  Negro  church 
on  Sunday  morning.  I  came  rather  early,  and 
found  an  adult  Bible  class  discussing  theology 
in  groups.  One  man  near  me  exclaimed,  "It 
says  'He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
be  saved,'  doesn't  it,  brother?  Well,  then,  I  be 
lieve,  so  why  argufy?  I  an't  a-goin'  to  take  no 
chances.  No,  sir,  I  an't  a-goin'  to  do  it" — a 
serene  black  child  of  forty  years  or  so. 

In  the  full  congregation  were  all  types  of 
Negroes.  The  men  were  undistinguished,  but 
the  women  were  very  striking.  One  lady  wore 
a  gilded  skirt  and  a  broad-brimmed,  black  straw 
hat.  Two  Cleopatras  sat  in  front  of  me — tall, 
elegant,  graceful,  expensively  dressed  as  in 
Mayfair,  one  in  chiffon,  the  other  in  soft  gray 
satin,  tiny  gold  chains  about  their  necks,  pearl 
earrings  in  their  ears.  They  had  smooth,  fruit- 
like  cheeks,  curving  outward  to  perfect  bell 
mouths.  When  they  sang  they  lifted  their  full, 
dusky  throats  like  grand  birds.  They  were 


46       THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

evidently  of  the  elite  of  Norfolk.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  were  numbers  of  baggy  and  volu 
minous  ladies  with  enormous  bosoms,  almost 
visibly  perspiring.  They  thronged  and  they 
thronged,  and  all  the  red-cushioned  seats  filled 
up.  There  were  men  of  all  types,  from  the  per 
fect  West  African  Negro  to  the  polished  Ameri 
can  Arab,  yellow  men,  brown  men,  lots  with 
large  tortoise-shell  spectacles,  all  with  close- 
cropped  hair  which  showed  the  Eunic  lines  of 
their  hard  heads.  Fans  were  provided  for  every 
worshipper,  and  noisy  religious  and  family  talk 
filled  the  whole  chapel. 

We  began  with  some  fine  singing — not  deep 
and  harmonious  and  complex  as  that  of  the  Rus 
sians,  but  hard,  resonant,  and  breezy,  followed 
by  conventional  prayers  and  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  pastor  then  sent  someone  to 
ask  me  ff  I  would  come  forward  and  give  them 
Christian  greeting  in  a  few  words.  I  was  much 
astonished,  as  I  did  not  know  one  ever  broke 
into  the  midst  of  Divine  Service  in  that  way. 
However,  I  came  forward  and  confronted  the 
strange  sea  of  dusky,  eager  faces  and  the  thou 
sand  waving  paper  fans,  and  I  said:  "Dear 
brothers  and  sisters,  I  am  an  Englishman  and 
a  white  man,  but  before  these  I  am  a  Christian. 
In  Christ,  as  you  know,  there  is  neither  white 
nor  black,  neither  inferiority  nor  superiority  of 
race,  unless  it  is  that  sometimes  the  first  shall 
be  last  and  the  last  first.  We  know  little  about 


IN  VIRGINIA  47 

the  American  Negro  in  England,  but  I  have 
come  to  find  out.  I  have  not  been  sent  by  any 
body,  but  was  just  prompted  by  the  Spirit  to 
come  out  here  and  make  your  acquaintance,  and 
so  bring  tidings  home  to  England.  I  hope  you 
will  take  that  as  an  assurance  of  loving  interest 
in  you,  and  a  promise  for  the  future.  I  am  glad 
to  see  you  have  made  such  progress  since 
slavery  days  and  have  in  Norfolk  fine  houses 
and  churches  and  banks  and  a  theatre  and  res 
taurants  and  businesses,  and  that  you  have  such 
a  large  measure  .of  happiness  and  freedom.  I 
believe  you  have  great  gifts  to  offer  on  the 
altar  of  American  civilization,  and  so  far  from 
remaining  a  problem  you  will  prove  a  treas 
ure."  And  I  told  some  touching  words  of  my 
friend  Hugh  Chapman,  of  the  chapel  of  the 
Savoy,  in  London:  "Mankind  is  saved,  not  by 
a  white  man,  or  by  a  black,  but  by  one  who  com 
bines  both — the  little  brown  Man  of  Nazareth. M 
It  was  a  strange  sensation,  that  of  facing  the 
Negro  congregation.  I  could  find  no  touch,  no 
point  of  contact,  could  indeed  take  nothing  from 
them.  The  spiritual  atmosphere  was  an  entirely 
different  one  from  that  of  a  gathering  of  Whites. 
I  should  have  been  inclined  to  say  that  there 
was  no  spiritual  atmosphere  whatever.  For  me 
it  was  like  speaking  to  an  empty  room  and 
a  vast  collection  of  empty  seats.  But  I  know 
there  was  something  there,  though  I  could  not 
realize  it. 


48        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BKOWN 

After  the  service  there  came  up  to  me  a 
purely  delightful  creature,  full  of  an  almost 
dangerous  ardor  for  what  I  had  said.  She  was 
the  leading  spirit  at  the  Liberty  Club  for  col 
ored  soldiers  and  jack  tars.  In  the  afternoon 
I  listened  to  some  wonderful  singing  at  another 
church.  The  little  black  organist  woman  sang 
at  the  top  of  her  voice  while  she  bent  over  the 
keys,  and  waved  the  spirit  into  her  choir  by 
eager  movements  with  the  back  of  her  hand. 

"Take  me,  shake  me,  don't  let  me  sleep," 
they  sang,  and  it  was  infinitely  worth  while. 
I  felt  that  in  the  great  ultimate  harmony  we 
could  not  do  without  this  voice,  the  voice  of  the 
praise  of  the  dark  children. 

Next  week  I  went  over  to  Newport  News. 
On  a  wall  in  Norfolk  I  read :  *  *  T.  Adkins,  New 
port  News, '  *  and  underneath  someone  had  writ 
ten,  "You  could  not  pay  me  to  live  there: 
Eobert  Johnson,  Norfolk." 

That  might  possibly  explain  the  relativity  of 
the  two  places.  Newport  News  is  a  ramshackle 
settlement  on  the  sands  across  the  water  from 
Norfolk.  It  has  a  nondescript,  ill-dressed,  well- 
paid,  wild,  working-class  population,  with  all 
manner  of  cheap  shops  and  low  lodging  houses. 
On  every  fifth  window  seems  to  be  scrawled  in 
whitewash,  "HOT  DOG  5  cents."  It  was  ex 
plained  to  me  that  this  is  sausage  of  a  rather 
poor  quality.  I  had  never  seen  the  article  so 
frankly  named  elsewhere,  For  the  rest,  a  good 


IN  VIRGINIA  49 

deal  of  manifest  immorality  strolls  the  streets 
at  night  or  is  voiced  on  dark  verandas.  The 
police  station  is  a  place  of  considerable  mystery 
and  glamour,  and  I  should  say  Newport  News  at 
this  season  would  have  proved  an  interesting 
research  for  the  vice  raker.  I  paid  three  dollars 
for  a  room  whose  lock  had  been  burst  off,  and 
one  of  whose  windows  was  broken,  a  mosquito- 
infested  hovel,  but  the  only  room  obtainable. 

A  very  interesting  young  colored  trainer  took 
me  over  the  shipbuilding  yards  the  next  day. 
He  was  an  enthusiastic  boxer,  and  I  asked  him 
the  cause  of  Negro  excellence  in  this  sport.  For 
there  are  at  least  three  Negro  boxers  whom  no 
white  boxers  have  been  able  to  beat,  and  this 
excellence  has  caused  the  championship  rules  to 
be  altered  so  as  to  disqualify  colored  cham 
pions. 

He  said  it  was  due  to  quicker  eye  and  greater 
aggressiveness,  above  all  to  greater  aggressive 
ness.  The  Negro  is  a  born  fighter.  It  is  true  he 
has  greater  endurance  and  a  much  harder  skull, 
but  he  has  also  remarkable  aptitude. 

"Has  the  Negro  boxer  more  science?"  I 
asked. 

"No,  perhaps  not  so  much.  He  has  fighting 
blood,  that's  what  it  is.  His  ancestors  fought 
for  thousands  of  years. " 

I  remarked  that  the  red  Indians  fought  also, 
but  they  were  poor  boxers.  He  put  that  down 
to  slight  physique, 


50       THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

"I  got  tired  of  watching  boxing  matches  in 
the  army,"  said  I.  "The  bulkier  and  more 
brntal  types  always  seemed  to  get  the  better 
of  those  who  were  merely  skillful.  I  expect  that 
is  why  we  don't  like  watching  a  Negro  and  a 
white  man  boxing,  it  is  too  much  a  triumph  of 
body  over  mind." 

"There's  no  finer  sight  than  to  watch  two 
Negroes  well  matched,"  said  the  trainer,  with 
a  smile. 

I  thought  good  boxing  showed  more  the  ani 
mal  side  of  a  man,  and  I  recalled  a  reported 
saying  of  Jack  Johnson — "I'se  ready  to  fight 
mos'  any  man  that  they  is,  an'  if  ye  cahn  find 
any  man,  why,  just  send  me  down  a  great  big 
black  Eussian  bear  ..." 

"It  jarred  the  white  folk  terrible  bad  that 
Jack  Johnson  was  the  real  champion  of  the 
world,"  said  the  trainer.  "When  the  news  came 
through  of  Jack  Johnson  beating  Jeffries  so  far 
away  as  Denver,  Colorado,  the  white  folk  began 
pulling  the  Negroes  off  the  street  cars  in  Nor 
folk,  Virginia,  and  beating  them,  just  to  vent 
their  rage,  they  were  so  sore." 

I  thought  that  rather  amusing,  but  the  trainer 
took  a  gloomy  view.  However,  in  we  went  to 
the  shipbuilding  yard  and  looked  at  many  great 
vessels  in  dry  dock.  Out  came  a  motley  crowd  of 
men,  blacker  than  their  nature  through  the  dirt 
of  their  work.  The  ship  painters  were  splashed 
from  head  to  foot  with  the  characteristic  red 


IN  VIRGINIA  51 

paint  of  ships,  and  looked  like  some  new  tribe ; 
the  blue-shirted  rivetters  and  chippers  were  all 
frayed  and  ragged  from  contact  with  sharp 
edges  and  iron.  These  Negro  workers  were  very 
happy  and  jolly.  They  seemed  nearly  all  to  be 
on  piecework  and  earned  in  most  cases  ten 
dollars  a  day,  and  in  some  exceptional  cases 
and  upon  occasion  twenty  or  twenty-five  dollars. 
The  rivetters,  according  to  the  scale  of  pay, 
seemed  to  be  capable  of  earning  huge  wages, 
and  many  of  them  were  comparatively  well  off, 
possessing  their  homes,  and  giving  their  chil 
dren  a  good  education.  The  trainer  pointed  out 
to  me  his  athletic  pets.  He  was  employed  by  the 
company  to  organize  competitions  and  races 
and  baseball  teams  and  the  like.  The  strongest 
Negroes  seemed  among  the  gentlest.  The  heavy 
weight  champion  was  a  large  and  beautiful 
child.  He  never  lost  his  temper  in  the  ring,  be 
cause,  as  I  was  told,  he  never  needed  to.  His 
ears  were  not  turned  to  "cauliflower"  and  his 
nose  was  not  flattened  out — as  yet. 

The  lunch  hour  was  remarkable  for  the 
swarms  of  men  belched  forth  by  the  works.  A 
twenty-cent  lunch  was  ready  for  all.  Wives  and 
mothers  also  were  allowed  to  come  and  bring 
food  to  supplement  what  was  served  at  the 
stands.  Lunch  over,  the  men  formed  into 
groups,  and  in  some  places  there  were  Bible 
discussions,  in  others  sporting  competitions. 
Despite  high  wages,  I  noticed  some  Negroes 


52        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

going  about  picking  up  crusts  and  putting  them 
into  paper  bags,  presumably  to  feed  the  chick 
ens  with  when  they  got  home.  My  guide  said 
this  was  due  to  the  "Save"  propaganda  which 
had  been  carried  on.  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  was  very 
much  to  the  fore,  an  industrial  "Y"  having 
been  financed  by  the  owners  of  the  yard.  I  was 
told  that  a  little  while  ago  the  company  found 
It  difficult  to  keep  the  young  Negro  boys — the 
heaters  and  passers,  on  whose  work  the  rivetter 
depends,  for  one  boy  heats  the  rivet  and  another 
passes  it,  and  the  rivetter  strikes  it  home.  They 
found  so  little  in  the  place  to  interest  them  that 
they  drifted  away  from  the  works.  It  was  this 
that  had  determined  the  firm  to  embark  on  a 
program  of  physical  culture  and  games.  There 
was  also  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  hut  and  its  usual  appurte 
nances.  A  long  list  of  evening  classes  was  being 
arranged.  A  large  building  had  been  promised 
to  the  "Y"  if  it  made  good. 

I  could  not  find  any  man  who  belonged  to  a 
genuine  trade-union  affiliated  to  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor,  though  most  belonged  to 
"Colored  People's  Brotherhoods."  The  Whites 
with  whom  they  worked,  and  with  whom  they 
have  upon  occasion  great  rivetting  competitions, 
were  presumably  non-union  also,  but  that  is 
common ;  labor  in  America  is  poorly  organized, 
compared  with  labor  in  Great  Britain.  Almost 
the  whole  of  Negro  labor  is  at  present  outside 
the  recognized  unions,  and  for  that  reason  can 


IN  VIRGINIA  53 

almost  always  be  used  to  break  strikes.  This  is, 
of  course,  unfortunate  for  the  Negro,  who  is 
thus  branded  as  a  "  blackleg "  in  addition  to 
being  black  by  nature,  which  was  reproach 
enough. 

I  met  a  strange  character  in  the  evening, 
one  of  the  colored  organizers,  a  friend  of 
the  white  men,  and  in  with  the  bosses  of 
the  yards.  He  was  possibly  a  descendant 
of  the  type  of  Negro  who  in  slavery  days 
acted  as  agent  for  the  slave  merchants,  and 
was  to  be  found  on  the  West  African 
shore  lording  it  over  the  batches  of  poor 
savages  who  with  hands  tied  up  were  being 
hustled  on  to  the  slave  ships.  It  used  to  be  a 
recognizable  type.  When  they  themselves  were 
"brought  over  to  America  they  became  overseers 
or  field  drivers,  and  brutal  enough  they  were 
to  their  fellow  men  of  color.  To-day  they  are 
foremen  or  speeders  up  of  Negro  gangs,  or  you 
find  them  under  the  auspices  of  "Welfare." 

This  was  a  lazy  Negro,  fat  and  heavy,  with  a 
confused  non-thinking  mind,  great  sooty  lips, 
and  bloodshot  eyes.  He  told  me  he  put  on  a 
wig  at  night  and  prowled  about  the  town,  spy 
ing  on  vice.  The  great  numbers  of  black  sol 
diers  embarking  or  disembarking  had  attracted 
sharps  and  bad  women  of  all  kinds.  The  streets 
were  infested  with  sin,  and  he  knew  which 
boarding  houses  were  disreputable  and  which 
were  properly  kept.  He  knew  where  there  was 


54        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

drink,  and  who  was  organizing  the  "  bootleg 
ging  "  business,  and  what  graft  the  police  took. 
Though  sluggish  by  nature,  this  gloomy  soul 
evidently  got  full  of  life  at  night — spying  on  the 
people. 

He  told  me  the  richest  colored  man  in  New 
port  News  was  a  dentist  who  charged  as  much 
as  six  dollars  an  hour  for  stopping  teeth.  The 
example  of  this  dentist 's  success  had  caused 
several  fathers  to  educate  their  children  for 
dentistry  rather  than  the  Church  or  the  Law. 
"But  we  Negroes  don't  want  to  rise,"  said  he. 
' '  We  want  to  show  off.  We  are  great  imitators 
of  swagger.  They'll  come  wearing  a  forty-dol 
lar  suit  and  a  clean  collar,  and  brandish  a  cigar 
in  your  face  when  that  is  all  they  have  in  the 
world.  We're  a  crude  people,  sir." 

There  was  on  the  one  hand  in  Newport  News 
a  nucleus  of  prosperous  Negro  families,  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  many  gambling  places  and 
dancing  dens  where  health  and  ambition  and 
money,  and  everything  else  which  can  help  a 
man  to  rise  could  be  squandered.  In  time  to 
come,  when  society  takes  root,  Newport  News 
should  become  a  Negro  stronghold.  Already 
there  are  so  many  Negroes  no  white  man  dare 
start  a  riot. 

Not  far  from  Newport  News  is  Hampton  In 
stitute,  the  "Negro  Eton,"  which  produces  the 
Curzons  and  the  Cecils  of  the  colored  race,  as 
someone  amusingly  expressed  it.  It  is  the  crown 


IN  VIEGINIA  55 

of  Northern  effort  to  educate  the  Negro.  En 
dowment  and  instruction  are  mostly  by  Whites. 
Everyone  is  engaged  in  vital  self-support,  and 
the  students  plough  the  fields,  make  boots,  build 
wagons,  print  books,  and  learn  all  manner  of 
practical  lessons  in  life.  Above  all,  they  are 
made  ready  to  teach  and  help  others  of  their 
race.  It  is  the  show  place  of  the  Negro  world, 
and  rightly  so,  as  most  of  those  who  lead  Negro- 
dom  hail  as  yet  from  Hampton. 

I  did  not  myself  visit  Hampton,  because  it 
has  been,  adequately  described  in  books,  and 
generally  speaking  I  would  rather  study  the 
Negro  in  his  unperfumed  haunts,  where  he  is 
less  disguised  with  Northern  culture.  Perhaps 
one  learns  more  of  the  needs  and  requirements 
of  the  Negroes  by  visiting  a  poor  school  where 
the  ordinary  routine  of  teaching  is  going  on. 
I  visited  a  high  school  named  after  Booker  T. 
Washington,  and  talked  to  the  students  in  the 
classes.  The  young  lady  who  took  me  to  the 
head  master  wore  a  low-cut,  white  blouse  from 
which  her  dainty  neck  and  her  head  of  kinky 
hair  grew  like  a  palm  tree.  She  had  dog's  teeth 
for  eardrops  hanging  from  her  ears,  and  large, 
kind,  questioning  eyes.  The  head  master  was  a 
quiet  young  man  from  some  Negro  university, 
full  of  pent-up  enthusiasm  for  his  race  and  for 
learning.  He  had  boundless  enthusiasm  for  the 
Negro  people  and  their  possibilities.  Was  not 
the  greatest  French  writer  a  colored  man,  and 


56   THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

the  greatest  Russian  poet  of  Negro  blood?  We 
went  into  the  composition  class.  They  were 
doing  "  Argumentation, "  which  is  perhaps  a 
trifle  dull,  but  we  discussed  brevity  and  the 
principle  of  suspense.  In  the  English  class  each 
child  had  read  "  Silas  Marner"  and  was  taking 
it  in  turn  to  re-tell  the  story  when  called  upon 
by  the  teacher.  This  was  pretty  well  done, 
though  Americanisms  were  frequent,  and  the 
two  brothers  were  said  to  be  "  disagreeable " 
when  it  was  meant  that  they  disagreed.  In 
French  the  whole  class  was  standing  around  the 
walls  of  the  room,  writing  French  sentences 
on  the  blackboards  fitted  into  the  panelling. 
French  was  very  popular.  Every  child  wanted 
to  go  to  France  by  and  by.  In  the  Latin  class 
we  discussed  the  merits  of  Caesar,  in  the  cookery 
class  whether  they  ate  what  they  cooked,  in  the 
needlework,  invisible  mending — when  suddenly 
the  fire  bell  sounded.  Each  class  at  once  got  up 
and  filed  out  in  orderly  manner.  In  one  minute 
the  whole  school  of  seven  hundred  black  chil 
dren  was  cleared.  Then  they  marched  back  in 
twos,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  in  fine  style,  to  the 
rub-a-dub-dub  of  a  kettledrum.  It  was  a  sur 
prise  alarm,  called  by  a  visiting  fire  inspector. 
None,  even  of  the  teachers,  had  known  whether 
the  alarm  was  real. 

The  teachers  here  were  all  black,  and  pos 
sessed  of  the  greatest  enthusiasm ;  the  children 
presented  some  hopeless  types,  but  they  were 


IN  VIRGINIA  57 

mostly  very  eager  and  intelligent.  The  methods 
of  teaching  seemed  to  be  advanced,  but  there 
were  many  deficiencies,  notably  that  of  the 
chemistry  class,  where  all  the  apparatus  was 
in  a  tiny  cupboard,  and  consisted  of  some  bits 
of  tubing,  a  few  old  test  tubes,  and  some  empty 
bottles. 

It  was  a  grievance,  and  I  thought  a  legitimate 
'one,  that  whereas  the  white  schools  were  given 
good  buildings  with  every  latest  convenience, 
less  was  thought  good  enough  for  the  Negro 
children.  Though  white  sympathizers  with  the 
ex-slave  had  been  very  generous  in  endowing 
Negro  education,  their  good  work  was  more  than 
neutralized  by  the  Southern  local  authorities, 
who  held  the  point  of  view  that  education 
spoiled  the  "  nigger. "  If  it  were  not  for  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  Negro  teachers,  who  carry  on 
in  any  circumstances,  it  might  easily  have  hap 
pened  that  the  colored  people  had  a  whole  series 
of  well-endowed  universities  and  colleges  like 
Fisk  and  Hampton,  but  no  elementary  or  sec 
ondary  school  education  worth  the  name. 

Lack  of  good  will  toward  the  Negro  thus  ex 
presses  itself  in  many  ways;  the  failure  to 
repair  his  roads,  the  failure  to  give  him  equal 
facilities  for  education  and  self-improvement, 
and  his  exclusion  from  the  public  libraries.  The 
white  man  will  not  say  "  No  "  to  grants  of  money 
which  give  him  handsome  Carnegie  library 
buildings  for  nothing  or  will  raise  universities, 


58       THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

even  Negro  universities,  but  lie  will  not  fulfill 
his  part  of  the  unwritten  contract — and  honor 
all  philanthropy  by  indiscriminate  good  will. 

After  visiting  the  school  I  saw  glimpses  of 
Negro  women  at  work  in  characteristic  places 
of  earning  a  living.  The  management  was 
always  very  sensitive  about  strangers  being 
present,  so  it  was  possible  to  find  out  little  about 
the  conditions.  One  shop  was  full  of  girls  sew 
ing  ready-cut  trousers  on  machines  run  by  elec 
tricity.  The  trousers  were  cut  in  Baltimore  and 
sent  down  here  to  be  sewn  cheaply  by  local  col 
ored  labor.  A  Jew  was  in  charge.  A  Negro 
woman  was  looking  after  the  "welfare"  of  the 
girls.  Another  was  a  tobacco  factory,  where 
girls  earned  eleven  dollars  a  week,  working 
from  7 :30  a.  m.  to  5 :30  p.  m.,  stripping  tobacco 
leaf  in  airy  and  fragrant  rooms.  At  piecework 
they  earned  from  six  cents  a  pound. 

I  visited  the  publishing  office  of  the  Journal 
and  Guide,  where  the  Negroes  not  only  edit  a 
paper  but  manufacture  their  own  type  and  do 
everything  themselves — one  of  a  hundred  Negro 
newspapers  published  in  the  United  States. 
The  average  number  of  spelling  errors  in  many 
of  these  sheets  seemed  to  be  about  three  a  para 
graph,  but  that  in  no  wise  renders  them  ridicu 
lous  or  deters  the  pen  of  the  ready  writers. 
Negroes  have  a  passion  for  journalism  which  is 
out  of  proportion  to  their  present  development 
and  capacity. 


IN  VIBGINIA  59 

As  I  came  out  of  the  publishing  office  with  the 
editor  we  saw  a  hearse.  It  was  drawn  by  a 
motor,  and  it  was  a  new  idea  to  me,  that  of  being 
motored  to  one's  grave.  The  editor  made  a 
sign  and  the  hearse  stopped.  "  Just  a  moment/* 
said  he,  and  a  lugubriously  cloaked  Ethiopian 
with  large,  shining  teeth  stepped  down. 

"This  is  Undertaker  Brown, "  said  the  editor. 

"Always  at  yo'  seyvice,  sar,"  said  the  under 
taker.  "Is  yo'  thinking  of  taking  a  ride  with 
mef" 

I  said  I  was  not  meditating  on  that  sad  course 
yet. 

"It's  a  fine  hearse,"  said  Brown — "and  look, 
they  is  steel  clamps  to  keep  the  coffin  steady  (he 
swung  open  the  rear  doors)  and  speshal  recep- 
pacles  fo'  the  flowers." 

I  thanked  him,  and  we  shook  hands  effu 
sively. 

All  the  Negroes  took  charge  of  me.  It  was  no 
difficult  task  to  see  their  ways  of  life.  It  was 
impossible  not  to  feel  happy  in  the  midst  of 
their  childish  vivacity  and  enthusiasm  and 
make-believe.  Their  grievances  were  almost 
lost  sight  of  in  the  sunshine  of  prosperity  in 

Eastern  Virginia.  Miss  M told  me  how  in 

the  Bed  Cross  drives  during  the  war  she  "led 
the  cullud  folk  over  the  top"  and  the  vividness 
of  her  story  of  Negro  vying  with  Negro  as  to 
who  should  subscribe  most  money,  and  how  she 
defied  the  white  "crackers"  to  continue  lynch- 


60        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

ing  and  persecuting  them  in  the  face  of  such 
patriotism  as  they  had  shown  was  not  only  in 
structive  but  extraordinarily  amusing,  and  also 
touching;  how  a  large  audience  of  white  people 
was  listening  to  a  combined  " platform"  of  black 
and  white  orators,  and  Negro  choirs  were  sing 
ing  " spirituals"  while  the  collection  plates 

rolled  round,  and  Miss  M when  she  arrived 

at  the  hall  was  so  dead-beat  with  rushing  round 
the  town  all  day  that  she  fell  in  a  faint  and 
she  prayed,  "Lord,  if  I  gain  strength  I'll  take 
it  for  a  sign  that  I  am  to  speak. ' '  And  she  came 
to  herself  and  went  on  to  the  platform  and  told 
the  white  folk  straight — what  she  felt — how 
nine-tenths  of  her  people  could  not  spell  the 
word  Democracy  and  had  indeed  only  just 
heard  of  it,  and  yet  they  sent  their  children  to 
wounds  and  death,  and  they  themselves  sub 
scribed  their  last  dimes  for  patriotic  causes. 
But  what  did  America  give  in  return?  And  at 
the  end  she  overheard  one  of  the  worst  "crack 
ers"  remark  that  he  could  not  help  admiring 
her,  she  was  "so  durned  sincere." 

The  last  evening  I  spent  in  this  corner  of 
Virginia  was  at  a  resort  of  colored  soldiers  and 
sailors,  and  I  had  a  talk  with  a  boy  who  had 
held  a  commission  in  the  Ninety-second  Divi 
sion,  a  black  unit  which  had  covered  itself  with 
glory  in  France.  He  was  a  lieutenant,  and  was 
at  the  taking  of  St.  Mihiel.  The  Negro  marines 
were  also  very  interesting — eager,  serious,  and 


IN  VIRGINIA  61 

sober  fellows.  They  were  prond  of  being  in 
Uncle  Sam's  navy,  but  wanted  a  chance  of 
advancement  there,  did  not  wish  to  remain 
twenty  years  in  the  same  grade,  but  hoped  des 
perately  for  a  gold  stripe  in  time,  and  the  chance 
to  become  petty  officer.  Soldiers  and  sailora 
surged  in  and  out  of  the  hall,  smoked  cigarettes, 
drank  soda,  and  chatted.  I  heard  no  foul  talk, 
and  I  took  much  pleasure  in  their  appearance. 
I  felt  what  a  fine  body  of  guardians  of  their 
country  could  be  made  of  them  if  once  prejudice 
were  finally  overcome.  In  this  part  of  Eastern 
Virginia,  the  apex  of  the  South,  the  new  black 
world  seemed  very  promising  and  had  gone  far 
in  its  fifty-seven  years  of  freedom. 

The  way  from  Norfolk  to  Richmond  is  up  the 
James  River,  and  I  continued  my  journey  on  a 
boat  that  had  evidently  come  from  New  York — 
redolent  as  it  was  of  long-distance  passengers. 
There  was  a  seat,  however,  just  under  the  cap 
tain's  lookout,  and  there  was  nothing  before  me 
but  the  progressing  prow  and  the  silver  expanse 
of  the  river.  A  classical  voyage  this — for  it  was 
up  the  James  River,  named  after  James  the 
First,  that  the  first  pioneers  of  Raleigh's  vir 
gin  land  made  their  way.  It  is  felt  to  be  ro 
mantic,  because  they  were  not  Roundheads  nor 
Quakers  nor  Plymouth  Brethren  nor  other 
sober-liveried  folk,  but  gentlemen  of  sword  and 
ruff,  courtier-sailors  who  upon  occasion  would 
be  ready  to  throw  their  cloaks  in  the  mud  for  a 


62        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Queen  to  tread  upon.  The  tradition  of  courtier 
survives,  and  a  rich  man  of  Virginia  is  to-day 
a  Virginian  gentleman,  though  there  is  scarcely 
another  State  in  America  where  the  landed  pro 
prietors  claim  to  be  gentry.  The  James  Eiver  is 
significant  for  another  reason.  At  little  James 
town,  which  never  came  to  anything  as  a  city, 
the  first  Negro  slaves  were  landed  in  America  in 
1618,  and  from  the  small  beginning  of  one  ship 
load  three  hundred  years  ago  nation-wide 
Negrodom,  with  all  its  black  millions,  has  arisen. 

Virginia  grew  prosperous  in  the  cultivation 
of  tobacco,  which  remains  to-day  the  staple  pro 
duction  of  a  comparatively  poor  State.  It  is  too 
far  north  for  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  and 
though  doubtless  possessing  great  mineral 
wealth,  industrial  research  has  not  gone  so  far 
as  in  Pennsylvania.  It  is  essentially  a  conserva 
tive  State.  Slavery  is  said  to  have  depressed  its 
economic  life  so  that  neighboring  Northern 
States,  whose  development  began  much  later, 
easily  overtook  it.  A  somewhat  patriarchal  set 
tled  state  of  life  took  possession  of  Virginia,  a 
new  feudalism  which  was  out  of  keeping  with 
hustling  and  radical  America.  It  is  remarkable, 
however,  how  many  lawmakers,  administrators, 
soldiers,  and  Presidents  Virginia  has  given  to 
the  United  States.  Starting  with  gentry,  it  has 
bred  gentry. 

And  with  regard  to  the  Negro,  the  State  has 


IN  VIRGINIA:  63 

a  good  record.  Despite  the  various  inequalities 
of  treatment  and  Jim-Crowism  noticeable  by 
anyone  who  is  observant,  there  is  little  or  no 
brutality  or  nigger-baiting.  Lynching  is  rare, 
and  it  must  be  supposed  the  alleged  Negro  afc 
tacks  upon  white  women  must  be  rare  also. 
Such  relatively  good  conditions  prevail  in  Vir 
ginia  that  the  whole  South  takes  shelter  behind 
her.  And  as  the  proud  Virginian  reckons  him 
self  par  excellence  the  Southerner,  he  is  often 
annoyed  when  he  reads  of  the  worse  treatment 
of  the  Negroes  further  south.  Virginia  should 
remember  she  is  not  the  whole  South,  and  she 
does  not  exert  even  a  moral  influence  upon 
Georgia  and  Mississippi.  In  that  respect  she 
seems  to  be  as  helpless  as  New  England  and 
the  Puritans,  to  whom  politically  she  has  gener 
ally  been  in  opposition. 

The  old  Virginian  families  bound  the  Negroes 
to  them  with  undying  devotion.  They  became 
part  of  the  family,  with  all  the  license  of  pet 
children.  They  fought  for  them  and  assisted 
them  in  the  Civil  War  with  the  creature-like 
devotion  of  clansmen  for  their  chief.  The 
"veterans"  who  still  survive,  Negroes  like  Rob 
ert  E.  Lee's  cook,  who  was  one  of  many  pic 
turesque  personalities  at  the  Atlanta  reunion, 
are  of  a  different  type  from  the  Negroes  of  to 
day.  They  identified  themselves  with  their  mas 
ter  and  mistress's  estate  and  person  in  a  way 


64        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

that  is  truly  touching.  Surely  of  all  beings  the 
Negro  is  capable  of  the  strongest  and  most 
pathetic  human  attachments. 

Freedom,  however,  and  the  new  ideas  blew 
autumnly  over  the  Virginian  summer.  All 
changed.  The  family  retinues  broke  up.  The 
affections  were  alienated.  The  new  race  of 
Negro  individualists  arose.  The  old ' i  mammies ' ' 
and  "uncles"  were  a  people  apart,  and  are 
dying  out  fast  now.  The  new  Negroes  are  with 
and  for  themselves.  They  make  shift  to  be 
happy  and  to  amuse  themselves  without  the 
white  man.  And  they  have  now  their  schools, 
their  churches  which  are  like  religious  clubs, 
their  political  societies,  theatres,  and  other 
segregated  interests. 

These  segregated  interests  have  produced 
and  tend  to  produce  an  ever-increasing  Negro 
culture,  and  though  that  culture  may  be  some 
what  despised  because  of  its  humble  beginnings, 
there  seems  no  reason  why  it  should  not  have  a 
future  which  will  compare  with  that  of  white 
America.  But  south  of  Eichmond  and  south  of 
Virginia  there  is  progressively  less  of  this 
Negro  culture  to  be  found.  There  are  the  oases 
of  Tuskegee  Institute  and  Atlanta  and  Fisk 
Universities,  but  white  opinion  is  adverse  to 
Negro  education,  and  the  black  masses  have 
been  unable  to  over-crow  their  neighbors.  In 
Eichmond  and  north  of  it,  however^  the  black 


IN  VIRGINIA  65 

man  has  leave  to  breathe  awhile,  and  there  are 
interesting  developments. 

Richmond,  which  in  1853  reminded  Olmsted 
of  Edinburgh  in  its  pictnresqueness,  has  now 
quintupled  its  population,  and  spread  greatly. 
It  is  still  a  handsome  city,  and  its  center  of 
Grecian  Capitol  and  public  gardens  is  very 
pleasant.  It  is  the  third  blackest  city  in  the 
United  States,  between  thirty-five  and  forty  per 
cent  of  its  population  being  colored.  A  certain 
General  Gabriel  led  an  insurrection  of  Negro 
slaves  against  Richmond  in  1801,  and  the  city 
has  always  adopted  itself  as  self-constituted 
warden  of  the  white  man's  safety.  The  city  has, 
however,  been  free  enough  from  disturbance 
since  the  Civil  War.  It  has  its  well-endowed 
Negro  colleges,  and  on  the  other  hand  its  less 
satisfactorily  placed  elementary  and  secondary 
schools.  As  in  Norfolk,  Negro  business  is  thriv 
ing,  though  it  has  deeper  roots. 

It  is  less  promising  west  of  Eichmond.  A 
duller  economic  life  prevails,  and  conditions  are 
more  normal,  less  affected  by  the  prosperity  of 
war  industrialism.  I  traveled  by  train  to  Lynch- 
burg.  As  this  was  my  first  experience  of  trains 
south  of  the  Mason-Dixon  line,  I  was  interested 
to  observe  the  Jim  Crow  arrangements.  The 
Negroes  are  kept  to  separate  waiting  rooms,  and 
book  their  tickets  at  other  booking  windows, 
and  they  are  put  into  separate  carriages  in  the 


66        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

trains,  and  not  allowed  promiscuously  with 
white  people,  as  in  the  North  They  have  not 
quite  so  good  accommodation,  though  they  pay 
the  same  fare;  sometimes  there  is  less  space, 
sometimes  there  is  no  separate  smoking  com 
partment.  Drawing-room  cars  and  "sleepers" 
are  generally  unavailable.  Colored  people  con 
sider  it  a  great  grievance,  but  it  is  probably  the 
insult  implied  in  their  segregation  that  affects 
them  most.  There  is  not  an  enormous  disparity 
in  the  comfort.  Inability  to  obtain  food  on  long 
distance  trains  was  often  mentioned  to  me  as 
the  chief  injustice,  but  the  personal  aspect  of 
the  matter  was  always  to  the  fore:  "We  don't 
want  to  mix  in  with  white  people,  or  with  those 
who  don't  want  us.  We  can  get  on  very  well 
by  ourselves  ...  "  they  were  always 
protesting. 

In  the  North,  promiscuously  seated  black  and 
white  passengers  all  seem  quite  happy  and  at 
ease.  Mixing  them  works  well.  There  is  never 
any  hitch.  In  the  South,  however,  segregation 
seems  to  be  for  the  Negro's  good.  The  less 
personal  contact  he  has  with  the  white  man  the 
safer  he  is  from  sudden  outbursts  of  racial  feel 
ing.  Of  course,  the  railway  companies  ought  to 
give  the  Negro  equal  accommodation  for  equal 
fare,  but  that  is  another  matter. 

Lynchburg  is  a  beautifully  situated  little  city 
beside  the  Blue  Eidge  Mountains.  It  is  a  great 
market  for  dark  tobacco.  It  manufactures  iron 


IN  VIRGINIA  67 

pipes,  ploughs,  boots  and  shoes,  and  a  number 
of  other  articles,  and  boasts  of  "  ideal  labor  con 
ditions  and  no  strikes. "  It  is  named  after  the 
original  planter,  Charles  Lynch,  an  Irish  boy, 
who  ran  from  home  and  married  a  Quaker.  It 
lapsed  from  Quakerism  to  a  very  sinful  state, 
and  then  is  said  to  have  been  reformed  by  the 
Methodists.  Now  there  is  nothing  to  trouble  the 
mind  unpleasantly  at  Lynchburg. 

The  public  library  seemed  to  have  paused 
sick  in  1905.  It  is  called  the  Jones  Memorial 
Library,  an  impressive  white  building  with  an 
array  of  white  steps  leading  up  to  it.  Jones 
himself,  who  was  a  business  man  and  served  a 
very  short  while  in  the  war  of  North  and  South, 
is  shown  in  full  martial  attire  drawing  his 
sword,  halfway  up  the  stone  steps — as  it  were 
in  act  of  driving  readers  away.  A  cold  cloister- 
like  air  pervaded  the  building.  Negroes  were 
not  permitted  in,  and  white  people  did  not  enter 
much.  The  librarian,  however,  was  unusually 
kind  and  obliging,  and  lent  me  a  book  without 
taking  a  deposit.  This  lady  said  she  would 
rather  sit  next  to  a  decent  black  woman  in  a 
train  than  to  the  average  White. 

"We  all  had  our  black  mammies — they 
treated  us  as  if  we  were  their  own  babies.  Can 
you  blame  us  if  sometimes  we  love  them  as  our 
own  flesh  and  blood  1  All  the  trouble  we  have  is 
due  to  Northerners  coming  South.  And  if  a 
Negro  gets  lynched,  what  a  fuss  is  made  of  it!" 


68        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

I  met  the  manager  of  a  tobacco  warehouse. 
He  was  not  willing  that  I  should  see  his  Negroes 
at  work  and  talk  to  them,  but  he  assured  me 
In  a  bland  way,  cigar  in  hand,  that  his  pickers 
were  a  jolly  crowd  who  knew  they  were  well 
paid  and  would  never  go  on  strike.  He  paid 
thirty  to  thirty-five  cents  the  hour  for  Negro 
labor. 

"The  war  has  played  the  devil  with  the  nig 
gers,"  said  he.  "It  has  spread  about  the  idea 
of  high  wages.  The  North  has  been  especially 
to  blame,  luring  the  niggers  up  there  with  the 
bait  of  big  money.  It  has  caused  a  rise  in  wages 
all  over  the  South. " 

His  employees  were  unskilled.  In  his  opinion 
no  Negroes  were  ever  used  for  skilled  work. 
What  I  had  to  tell  him  of  Newport  News  and 
its  shipyards  was  beyond  his  comprehension. 
As  for  Hampton  Institute,  he  averred  that  he 
had  never  heard  that  it  produced  capable 
artisans.  In  his  opinion  there  had  been  some 
good  Negro  carpenters  and  wheelwrights  in 
slavery,  but  none  since.  Freedom  had  been  very 
bad  for  the  Negro.  Yes,  he  utterly  approved 
of  lynching.  It  was  always  justified,  and  mis 
takes  were  never  made.  He  had  a  water-tight 
mind. 

A  mile  or  so  away  was  Virginia  College,  a 
red-brick  structure  in  the  woods,  where  in 
happy  seclusion  a  few  hundred  colored  men  and 
"women  were  being  enfranchised  of  civilization 


IN  VIRGINIA  69 

and  culture.  A  student  took  me  to  his  study- 
bedroom,  hung  with  portraits  of  John  Brown 
and  Booker  T.  Washington.  The  Bible  was  still 
the  most  important  book,  and  it  occupied  the 
pride  of  place,  though  it  was  interleaved  with 
pages  of  the  Negro  radical  monthly,  The 
Crisis.  The  student  was  an  intense  and  earnest 
boy  with  all  The  extra  seriousness  of  persecuted 
race  consciousness.  He  said,  in  a  low  voice,  that 
he  would  do  anything  at  any  cost  for  his  people. 
He  said  the  present  leaders  of  the  Negro  world 
would  fail,  because  of  narrow  outlook,  but  the 
next  leaders  would  win  great  victories  for  color. 
And  he  would  be  ready  to  follow  the  new  lead 
ers.  What  a  contrast  they  were! — the  boss  of 
the  tobacco  factory,  cigar  in  hand,  "talking 
wise"  on  the  nigger,  and  the  quiet  Negro  intel 
lectual  in  his  college,  whetting  daily  the  sword 
of  learning  and  ambition. 


ni 

ORATORS  AND  ACTORS,  PBEACHEES 
AND  SINGEES 

THE  aspirations  and  convictions  of  the  Negroes 
of  to-day  were  well  voiced  in  a  speech  I  heard 
at  Harlem.  I  had  been  warned  that  I  ought  to 
hear  the  "  red-hot  orator  of  the  Afro-American 
race,"  and  so  I  went  to  hear  him.  The  orator 
was  Dean  Pickens,  of  Morgan  College,  Balti 
more.  When  he  came  to  the  platform  the  col 
ored  andience  not  only  cheered  him  by  clapping, 
but  stood  up  and  cried  aloud  three  times : 

"Yea,  Pickens  I" 

The  chairman  had  said  he  would  have  to  leave 
about  half  after  five,  but  the  speaker  must  not 
allow  himself  to  be  disturbed  by  that,  but  go 
right  on.  Pickens,  who  was  one  of  the  very  black 
and  very  cheerful  types  of  his  race,  turned  to 
the  chairman  and  said: 

"You  won't  disturb  me,  brother!  But  if 
you're  going  at  half  after  five,  let's  shake  hands 
right  now,  and  then  I  can  go  straight  ahead. ' ' 

And  they  shook  hands  with  great  gusto,  and 
everyone  laughed  and  felt  at  ease.  Pickens  was 
going  to  speak;  nothing  could  disturb  Pickens; 

70 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   71 

they  relaxed  themselves  to  a  joyful,  anticipatory 
calm. 

Just  before  the  turn  of  Pickens  to  speak  a 
white  lady  journalist  had  rushed  on  to  the  plat 
form  and  rushed  off  between  two  pressing 
engagements,  and  had  given  the  audience  a 
"  heart-to-heart "  talk  on  Bolsheviks  and  agi 
tators,  and  had  told  them  how  thankful  they 
ought  to  be  that  they  were  in  America  and  not 
in  the  Congo  still.  She  gained  a  good  deal  of 
applause  because  she  was  a  woman,  and  a  White, 
and  was  glib,  but  the  thinking  Negroes  did  not 
care  for  her  doctrine,  and  were  sorry  she  could 
not  wait  to  hear  it  debated. 

"Brothers,  they're  always  telling  us  what  we 
ought  to  be,"  said  the  orator,  with  an  engaging 
smile.  "But  there  are  many  different  opinions 
about  what  ought  to  be;  it's  what  we  are  that 
matters.  As  a  colored  pastor  said  to  his  flock 
one  day — 'Brothers  and  sisters,  it's  not  the 
oughtness  of  this  problem  that  we  have  to  con 
sider,  but  the  isness!'  I  am  going  to  speak  about 

the  isness.  Sister  S ,  who  has  just  spoken, 

has  had  to  go  to  make  a  hurry  call  elsewhere, 
but  I  am  sorry  she  could  not  stay.  I  think  she 
might  perhaps  have  heard  something  worth 

while  this  afternoon.  Sister  S warned  us 

against  agitators  and  radicals.  Now,  I  am  not 
against  or  for  agitators.  The  question  is: 
'What  are  they  agitating  about?'  'Show  me  the 
agitator,'  I  say,  President  Wilson  is  a  great 


72        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

agitator;  lie  is  agitating  a  League  of  Nations. 
Jesus  Christ  was  a  great  agitator;  He  agitated 
Christianity.  The  Pharisees  and  Sadducees 
didn't  like  His  agitating,  and  they  fixed  Him. 
But  He  was  a  good  agitator,  and  we're  not 
against  Him.  Then,  again,  the  Irish  are  great 
agitators;  the  Jews  are  great  agitators;  there 
are  good  and  bad  agitators.  (Applause.)  But, 
brothers,  I'll  tell  you  who  is  the  greatest  agi 
tator  in  this  country  .  .  .  the  greatest  agitator 
is  injustice.  (Sensation.)  When  injustice  dis 
appears,  I'll  be  against  agitators,  or  I'll  be 
ready  to  see  them  put  in  a  lunatic  asylum.  (Ap 
plause.) 

1 '  Sister  S was  very  hard  on  the  radicals. 

There,  again,  show  me  the  radical,  I  say.  A 
man  may  be  radically  wrong,  yes,  but  he  may 
also  be  radically  right.  (Laughter.) 

"As  for  the  Bolsheviks,  it's  injustice  is  mak 
ing  Bolshevism.  It's  injustice  that  changes 
quiet,  inoffensive  school  teachers  and  working- 
men  into  Bolsheviks,  just  as  it  is  injustice  is 
stirring  up  the  colored  people.  Not  that  we 
are  Bolsheviks.  I  am  not  going  to  say  anything 
against  Bolsheviks,  either.  Show  me  the  Bol 
shevik  first,  I  say,  and  then  I'll  know  whether 
I'm  against  him.  People  are  alarmed  because 
the  number  of  Bolsheviks  is  increasing.  But 
what  is  making  them  increase?  If  America  is 
such  a  blessed  country,  why  is  she  making  all 
these  Bolsheviks!  You  know  a  tree  by  its  fruits, 


OEATOES,  PEEACHEES,  SINGEES  73 

and  so  you  may  know  a  country  by  what  it  pro 
duces.  These  Bolsheviks  that  we  read  of  being 
deported  in  the  Soviet  Ark  weren't  Bolshevik 
when  they  came  to  this  country.  It  comes  to 
this:  that  weVe  raised  a  crop  of  Bolshevism 
in  this  country  and  are  exporting  it  to  Europe, 
and  now  we're  busy  sowing  another  crop.  Stop 
sowing  injustice,  and  Bolshevism  will  cease 
growing.  (Applause  again.) 

"But  there  is  less  Bolshevism  among  the  col 
ored  people  than  among  the  white,  because  the 
colored  are  more  humble,  more  subservient, 
more  used  to  inequalities.  We  are  always  being 
told  that  we  are  backward,  and  we  believe  it; 
bad,  and  we  believe  it;  untrustworthy,  and  we 
believe  it;  immoral,  and  we  believe  it.  We  are 
always  being  told  what  we  ought  to  be.  But 
I'll  come  back  to  what  we  are. 

"We  may  be  immoral ;  we  may  be  a  danger  to 
the  white  women.  But  has  anyone  ever  honestly 
compared  the  morality  of  Whites  and  Blacks? 
They  will  tell  you  there  is  not  sufficient  evidence 
to  make  a  comparison,  or  they  will  bring  you 
pamphlets  and  paragraphs  out  of  newspapers, 
records  of  disgusting  crimes ;  and  we  know  very 
well  that  in  twelve  million  Negroes  there  are 
bound  to  be  some  half-wits  and  criminals  capa 
ble  of  terrible  breaches  of  morality.  But  at  best 
it  is  a  paper  evidence  against  the  Negro,  while 
there  is  flesh-and-blood  evidence  against  the 
White.  The  moral  standard  of  the  Whites  is 


74        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

written  visibly  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  three 
million  of  our  race.  (Another  sensation.)  Broth 
ers,  there's  one  standard  for  the  white  man, 
and  another  for  the  colored  man.  (Sensation 
redoubled.)  A  colored  man's  actions  are  not 
judged  in  the  same  light  as  those  of  a  white 
man. 

"Well,  I'm  not  against  that.  It  is  giving  us 
a  higher  ideal.  A  colored  man  has  got  to  be 
much  more  careful  in  this  country  than  a  white 
man.  He'll  be  more  heavily  punished  for  the 
same  crime.  If  he  gets  into  a  dispute  with  a 
white  man  he's  bound  to  lose  his  case.  So  he 
won't  get  into  the  dispute.  (Laughter.)  Where 
a  white  man  gets  five  years'  imprisonment,  the 
Negro  gets  put  in  the  electric  chair.  Where  the 
white  man  gets  six  days,  he  gets  two  years. 
If  a  white  man  seduces  a  colored  girl,  she  never 
gets  redress.  If  the  other  thing  occurs,  the 
Negro  is  legally  executed,  or  lynched.  What  is 
the  result  of  all  that  inequality!  Why,  it  is 
making  us  a  more  moral,  less  criminal,  less  vio 
lent  people  than  the  Whites.  Once  at  a  mixed 
school  they  were  teaching  the  black  and  white 
boys  to  jump.  The  white  boys  jumped  and  the 
black  boys  jumped.  But  when  it  was  the  black 
boy's  turn  the  teacher  always  lifted  the  jump 
ing  stick  a  few  inches.  What  was  the  conse 
quence!  Why,  after  a  while  every  colored  boy 
in  that  school  could  jump  at  least  a  foot  higher 
than  any  white  boy.  (Renewed  sensation,  in 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   75 

which  Pickens  attempted  several  times  to 
resume.) 

"That  is  what  is  happening  to  the  Negro 
race  in  America.  We  are  being  taught  to  jump 
a  foot  higher  than  the  Whites.  We  will  jump  it, 
or  we  will  break  our  necks.  (Laughter.) 

"Of  course  a  great  difference  separates  the 
Black  from  the  White  still.  And  I  don't  say  that 
the  white  man  hasn't  given  us  a  chance.  If  our 
positions  had  been  transposed,  and  we  had  been 
masters  and  the  white  folks  had  been  the  slaves, 
I'm  not  sure  that  we  wouldn't  have  treated  them 
worse  than  they  have  treated  us.  But  the  white 
folk  make  a  mistake  when  they  think  we're  not 
taking  the  chances  they  give  us.  We  are  taking 
them.  We  are  covering  the  ground  that  sepa 
rates  Black  from  White.  The  white  man  is  not 
outstripping  us  in  the  race.  We  are  nearer  to 
Mm  than  we  were — not  farther  away.  We 
haven't  caught  up,  but  we're  touching.  We  are 
always  doing  things  we  never  did  before.  (Ap 
plause.) 

"We  shall  not  have  cause  to  regret  the  time 
of  persecution  and  injustice  and  the  higher 
standard  of  morality  that  has  been  set  us. 
Brothers,  it's  all  worth  while.  Our  boys  here 
have  been  to  France  and  bled  and  suffered  for 
white  civilization  and  white  justice.  We  didn't 
want  to  go.  We  didn't  know  anything  about  it. 
But  it's  been  good  for  us.  We've  made  the 
cause  of  universal  justice  our  cause.  We  have 


76        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

taken  a  share  in  world  sufferings  and  world 
politics.  It's  going  to  help  raise  us  out  of  our 
obscurity.  We  have  discovered  the  French,  and 
shall  always  be  grateful  to  them.  We  didn't 
know  France  before,  but  every  colored  soldier 
is  glad  now  that  he  fought  for  France.  If  there 
Is  to  be  a  League  of  Nations,  we  know  France 
will  stand  by  us.  And  we  shall  have  a  share  in 
the  councils  of  Humanity — with  our  colored 
brethren  in  all  parts  of  the  world."  (Sensation 
again.) 

The  orator  spoke  for  two  hours,  and  the  above 
Is  only  a  personal  remembrance  put  down  after 
wards.  His  actual  speech  is  therefore  much 
shortened.  But  that  was  the  sense  and  the 
flavor  of  it.  It  was  given  in  a  voice  of  humor 
and  challenge,  resonant,  and  yet  everlastingly 
whimsical.  Laughter  rippled  the  whole  time. 
I  shook  hands  with  him  afterwards ;  for  he  was 
warm  and  eloquent  and  moving  as  few  speakers 
I  have  heard.  He  was  utterly  exhausted,  for 
he  had  drawn  his  words  from  his  audience,  and 
two  thousand  people  had  been  pulling  at  his 
spirit  for  two  hours. 

It  was  delightful  to  listen  to  a  race  propa 
gandist  so  devoid  of  hatred,  malice,  and  unchar- 
itableness.  Some  regard  humor  as  the  greatest 
concomitant  of  wisdom,  and  this  representative 
Negro  certainly  had  both.  He  never  touched  on 
the  tragedy  of  race  hatred  and  racial  injustice, 
but  he  saw  the  humor  of  them  also,  And  the 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   77 

colored  audience  saw  the  humor  also.  With  the 
English  there  would  have  been  anger,  with  the 
French  spontaneous  insurrection,  with  the  Jews 
gnashing  of  teeth,  but  with  the  Negroes  it  was 
humor.  There  was  no  collective  hate  or  spite, 
but,  manifest  always,  a  desire  to  be  happy,  even 
in  the  worst  circumstances. 

It  is  curious,  however,  that  the  Negro  has  a 
livelier  sense  of  the  humor  of  tragedy  than  the 
white  man.  For  two  months  I  visited  a  Negro 
theatre  every  week,  and  I  was  much  struck  by 
the  fact  that  where  there  was  most  cause  to 
weep  or  feel  melancholy,  the  colored  audience 
was  most  provoked  to  mirth.  Negro  companies, 
such  as  the  Lafayette  Players,  play  '  '  Broadway 
successes, "  melodramas,  classical  dramas,  mu 
sical  comedies,  and  indeed  anything  that  would 
be  staged  in  a  white  man's  theatre.  But  the 
result  is  nearly  always  comedy.  As  upon  occa 
sion  white  men  burn  cork  and  make  up  as 
Negroes,  so  the  Negroes  paint  themselves  white 
and  make  up  as  white  men  and  women.  Watch 
ing  them  is  an  entrancing  study,  because  there 
is  not  only  the  original  drama  and  its  interest, 
but  superadded  the  interpretation  by  Africans 
of  what  they  think  the  white  man  is  and  does 
and  says.  Some  of  it  is  like  the  servants'  hall 
dressed  up  as  master  and  mistress  and  their 
friends,  but  has  remarkable  felicity  in  acting. 
A  large  party,  all  in  full  evening  dress,  is  very 
striking — only  the  Negro  women  are  on  the  aver- 


78        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

age  so  huge  that  when  painted  white  and  expos 
ing  vast  fronts  of  bosoms,  they  are  somewhat 
incredible.  A  typical  evening  party  on  the 
stage,  with  villain  and  hero,  looks  very  hand 
some,  but  not  in  any  way  Anglo-Saxon,  if  con 
ceivably  foreign  American.  The  hero  may  have 
a  perfectly  villainous  expression.  One's  mind  is 
taken  away  from  America  to  the  Mediterra 
nean.  Even  when  painted,  it  is  impossible  to 
look  other  than  children  of  the  sun.  The  drama 
Is  played  with  a  great  deal  of  noise.  When  the 
moments  of  passion  arrive,  everyone  lets  him 
self  go,  and  the  stage  is  swallowed  up  in  a  hurly- 
burly  of  violent  word  and  action.  There  is  never 
any  difficulty  in  hearing  what  is  being  said.  But 
even  the  minor  characters,  such  as  butler  and 
waiter,  who  should  be  practically  mute,  insist 
on  whistling  and  singing  as  they  go  about,  and 
serve  the  guests  in  a  pas  de  danse.  In  one  seri 
ous  melodrama  the  butler  never  appeared 
but  he  hummed  resonantly  the  popular  air: 
"Yakky,  Yekky,  Yikky,  Yokky  Doola."  The 
villain  or  villainess  is  likely  to  act  the  part 
with  great  verve,  and  generally  I  remarked  a 
true  aptitude  for  acting,  an  ability  which  noise 
and  violence  could  not  hide.  A  white  drama  is 
literally  transformed  on  the  Negro  stage.  The 
Negroes  catch  hold  of  any  childishness  or  piece 
of  make-believe  and  give  it  a  sort  of  poetry. 
Thus,  for  instance,  Miss  Elenor  Porter's 
"Polyanna,"  with  its  gospel  of  "Be  glad/'  is 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   79 

a  cloying  sentimentalism  in  the  hands  of  the 
ordinary  white  company.  But  the  Negroes  make 
it  into  a  sort  of  " Alice  in  Wonderland/'  very 
amusing,  very  sweet,  and  very  touching — some 
thing  entirely  delightful.  The  consciousness  of 
the  white  person  sitting  in  the  colored  theater 
is,  however,  continually  disturbed  by  ripple?  of 
tittering  whenever  on  the  stage  there  is  a  sug 
gestion  of  calamity.  When  it  is  melodrama  that 
is  being  played,  the  audience  laughs  all  the  time 
like  a  collection  of  intellectuals  who  have  visited 
a  popular  theatre  to  watch  "The  Silver  King" 
or  "The  Girl's  Crossroads."  The  very  sug 
gestion  of  disaster  is  funny. 

This  is  an  indication  of  difference  in  soul. 
There  are  many  who  would  see  in  these  white- 
painted  Negroes  another  instance  of  a  passion 
for  the  imitation  of  white  people.  But  one  could 
hardly  point  to  anything  that  shows  more 
readily  the  sheer  difference  of  black  and  white 
people  than  the  Negro  stage  such  as  it  is  to-day. 

There  is  not  as  yet  a  Negro  drama,  but  it  cer 
tainly  will  arise.  Ridgely  Torrence's  "Plays 
for  a  Negro  Theatre"  is  perhaps  the  nearest 
approach  so  far  to  a  genuine  Negro  drama,  but 
the  author  is  white.  The  great  success  of  these 
plays  when  acted  by  Negroes  only  shows  the 
glory  that  awaits  the  awakening  of  a  true  Negro 
dramatist.  Every  large  city  in  America  has  its 
Negro  theatre  or  music  hall  or  cinema  shows. 
The  drama  could  become  an  organ  of  racial  self- 


80   THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

expression,  and  could  give  voice  to  the  hopes 
and  aspirations  and  sorrows  of  the  colored 
people  in  a  very  moving  way.  I  think  such  a 
drama  would  prove  highly  original.  Comedy 
would  be  conceived  in  a  different  spirit.  So  far 
would  be  conceived  in  a  different  spirit.  So  far 
from  the  Negro  imitating  the  white  man,  we 
should  all  be  found  imitating  him — as  we 
already  imitate  him  in  our  dances  and  music. 
The  new  Negro  humor  would  infect  the  whole 
^Western  world. 

It  is  generally  called  "the  blues."  We  say 
we  have  a  fit  of  the  blues  when  we  are  feeling 
depressed.  It  is  not  at  all  a  laughing  matter, 
but  the  Negro  finds  that  state  of  mind  to  be 
always  humorous.  A  hundred  new  comic  songs 
tell  the  humor  of  sorrows.  All  the  gloomy  for 
mulas  of  everyday  life  have  been  set  to  music. 
Telling  one's  hard  fortune  and  howling  over  it 
and  drawing  it  out  and  infinitely  bewailing  it, 
and  adding  circumstantial  minor  sorrows  as 
one  goes  along  and  infinitely  bewailing  them — 
this  is  distinctively  Negro  humor. 

I  visited  one  evening  a  Negro  theatre  where  a 
musical  comedy  was  going  on — words  and  music 
both  by  Negroes.  It  opened  with  the  usual  sing 
ing  and  dancing  chorus  of  Negro  girls.  They 
were  clad  in  yellow  and  crimson  and  mauve 
combinations  with  white  tapes  on  one  side  from 
the  lace  edge  of  the  knicker  to  their  dusky  arms. 
They  danced  from  the  thigh  rather  than  from 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   81 

the  knee,  moving  waist  and  bosom  in  unre 
strained  undulation,  girls  with  large,  startled 
seeming  eyes  and  uncontrollable  masses  of  dark 
hair.  A  dance  of  physical  joy  and  abandon,  with 
no  restraint  in  the  toes  or  the  knees,  no  veiling 
of  the  eyes,  no  half  shutting  of  the  lips,  no  hold 
ing  in  of  the  hair.  Accustomed  to  the  very 
aesthetic  presentment  of  the  Bacchanalia  in  the 
Russian  Ballet,  it  might  be  difficult  to  call  one  of 
those  Negro  dancers  a  Bacchante,  and  yet  there 
was  one  whom  I  remarked  again  and  again,  a 
Queen  of  Sheba  in  her  looks,  a  face  like  starry 
night,  and  she  was  clad  slightly  in  mauve,  and 
went  into  such  ecstasies  during  the  many  en 
cores  that  her  hair  fell  down  about  her  bare 
shoulders,  and  her  cheeks  and  knees,  glistening 
with  perspiration,  outshone  her  eyes.  Follow 
ing  this  chorus  a  love  story  begins  to  be  devel 
oped — a  humorous  mother-in-law  of  tremendous 
proportions  and  deep  bass  voice,  her  black  face 
blackened  further  to  the  color  of  boots,  repri 
mands  and  pets  her  scapegrace  son,  who  is  the 
comic  loafer.  He  confers  with  his  " buddy"  as 
to  how  to  win  "Baby,"  the  belle  of  Dark  City. 
The  " buddy"  is  the  lugubriously  stupid  and 
faithful  and  above  all  comic  Negro  friend  who 
in  trying  to  help  you  always  does  you  an  ill 
turn.  "Baby"  is  the  beautiful  doll  of  the  piece 
— "Honey  baby,  sugar  baby!"  She  is  courted 
also  by  the  villain,  who  is  plausible  and  well 
dressed  and  polite,  but  still  provocative  of 


82        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

mirth.  The  hero  and  the  villain  do  a  competitive 
cake  walk  for  the  girl,  posturizing,  showing  off, 
approaching  and  retiring,  almost  squatting  and 
dancing,  leaping  and  dancing,  swimming 
through  the  air,  throwing  everything  away  from 
them  and  falling  forward,  and  yet  never  fall 
ing,  blowing  out  their  cheeks  and  dilating  their 
eyes,  and,  as  it  were,  hoo-dooing  and  out-hoo 
dooing  one  another,  pseudo-enragement,  mon 
key-mocking  of  one  another,  feigned  stage- 
fright  and  pretended  escapes.  Seeing  this  done 
on  a  first  night,  the  whole  theatre  was  jammed 
and  packed  with  Negro  people,  and  they  recalled 
the  couple  nine  times,  and  still  they  gave  en 
cores.  One  of  them,  the  villain,  gave  up,  but  the 
other,  the  hero,  went  on  as  if  still  matched, 
his  mouth  open  and  panting,  and  perspiration 
streaming  through  the  black  grease  on  his  face 
— for  he  also  had  blackened  himself  further  for 
fun.  The  wedding  service  was  danced  and  sung 
in  a  "scena"  which  would  have  enravished  even 
a  Eussian  audience.  I  had  seen  nothing  so 
pretty  or  so  amusing,  so  bewilderingly  full  of 
life  and  color,  since  Sanine's  production  of  the 
' '  Fair  of  Sorochinsky, "  in  Moscow. 

The  most  characteristic  parts  of  the  comedy, 
however,  were  to  come.  It  was  very  lengthy, 
for  Negroes  do  not  observe  white  conventions 
regarding  time. .  It  would  be  tedious  to  describe 
in  words  what  was  wholly  delightful  to  see.  But 
there  were  two  crises  when  the  audience  roared 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS  83 

with  joy  excessively.  First,  when  the  young 
husband  suspects  his  wife  of  flirting  with  the 
villain,  and  second,  when  he  wants  to  make  it  up 
and  every  imaginable  calamity  descends  upon 
his  head.  He  arrives  at  his  home  about  mid 
night,  wearing  a  terribly  tight  pair  of  boots  and 
a  suit  of  old,  dusty  clothes.  There  is  a  party  at 
the  house;  everyone  is  in  evening  dress.  He 
won't  go  in  to  the  dance  room.  He  has  to  sit 
down  and  take  his  boots  off,  and  henceforth 
walks  about  holding  them  in  his  hands.  He  sees 
his  wife  dancing  with  the  villain,  makes  a  scene, 
and  then  dramatically  leaves  his  wife  for  ever. 
Left  behind,  she  stares  a  moment  in  silence,  and 
then  throws  herself  full  length  on  a  low  table, 
kicks  up  her  heels,  and  vents  her  unhappiness 
in  a  series  of  prolonged  howls  and  paroxysms 
which  put  the  audience  into  a  heaven  of  delight. 
The  tight  boots  and  the  limp  they  cause  are 
blues;  the  wife's  grief  is  a  blue;  and  for  the 
rest  of  the  drama  the  melancholy  husband  is 
seen  tramping  about  in  his  socks,  carrying  his 
wretched  boots  in  his  hands.  His  unhappiness 
is  long-drawn-out,  but  when  at  last  he  decides 
to  forgive  and  comes  back  home,  he  is  met  by 
the  lugubrious  " buddy"  outside  his  house,  who 
tells  him  all  his  wife  has  suffered  in  his  absence. 
The  repentant  husband  looks  very  miserable. 

"And  then  a  little  baby  boy  was  born,"  says 
Buddy. 

The  repentant  husband  cheers  up. 


84        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

"So  like  you,  such  a  beauty. " 

The  husband  waxes  excited  and  happy,  and 
asks  a  flood  of  questions. 

"But  the  baby  died,"  says  his  lugubrious 
companion. 

The  poor  hero  yells  with  sorrow. 

"How  Baby  wished  you  were  there  to  see 
little  baby,"  says  Buddy.  "How  she  talked  of 
you!" 

"The  little  darling — and  she  has  quite  for 
given  me?" 

"She  forgave  you,  all  right.  Ah,  she  was  a 
fine  woman.  You  never  deserved  such  a  woman 
as  she  was,  so  beautiful,  so  loving,  so  tender, 
so  devoted — always  saying  your  name,  counting 
the  days  you  had  been  away  from  her  and  mop 
ing  and  sighing.  Ah,  it  ate  into  her  heart!" 

"Yes,  Buddy,  I  am  a  worthless,  miserable 
nigger,  that's  what  I  am.  I  didn't  deserve  to 
have  her." 

"She  said:  'Oh,  for  one  kiss;  oh,  for  one 
hug '  " 

"I'll  go  in  to  her  at  once." 

"Stop!"  says  Buddy  impressively. 

"Wha's  the  matter?" 

' l  She  died  day  after  baby  was  born. ' ' 

"No?" 

"Yassir.   Stone  dead.   Sure's  I  live." 

The  poor  hero  breaks  down  and  sobs  and 
wails  and  howls  and  blubbers,  distraction  in  his 
aspect,  his  knees  knock  together,  he  throws  his 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS  85 

hat  in  the  dust — and  all  the  while  the  audience 
is  convulsed  with  laughter.  The  Negro  women 
in  the  stalls  find  their  chairs  too  small  for  them 
and  all  but  fall  on  to  the  floor;  the  smartly 
dressed  Negro  youths  in  the  boxes  are  guffaw 
ing  from  wide-opened  mouths  and  laughing  as 
much  with  their  bodies  as  with  their  faces. 

"  Mother  and  I  went  to  town  to  buy  the  cof 
fin/'  says  Buddy.  "Poor  old  Mother  I" 

"Did  Mother  forgive  me?" 

"Oh,  yes,  she  forgave  you  all  right.  Such  a 
mother  as  she  was.  She  knew  you  were  bad  and 
wrong  and  a  disgrace,  but  she  loved  you.  Ah, 
how  she  loved  you ! ' ' 

"I  am  glad  there's  poor  old  Mother." 

"Mother  and  I  arranged  for  the  funerals,  but 
we  had  to  sell  up  the  home.  Yes,  every  stick." 

More  and  more  grief  on  the  part  of  husband. 

"I'll  go  in  and  see  her  anyway,"  says  he, 
moving  toward  the  door. 

"Stop!"  says  Buddy. 

"Wha's  the  matter?" 

"She's  dead  ..  ,.  .  run  over  by  a  trolley  car 
as  we  were  going  to  the  funeral  ..."  and  so 
on,  the  denouement  of  course  being  that  when 
he  is  about  to  go  and  hang  himself  he  catches 
a  glimpse  of  Mother,  larger,  if  possible,  than 
life,  and  he  realizes  it  is  all  a  hoax,  and  then 
Baby  appears  with  her  little  baby — and  all  is 
joy. 

Of  course  the  play  par  excellence  for  a  Negro 


86        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

theatre  is  ' ' Otliello, ' '  or  rather,  for  a  Negro 
actor  in  a  mixed  cast.  Unfortunately,  no  white 
company  in  the  United  States  will  allow  a  Negro 
actor  to  take  even  a  subordinate  role.  Even 
"nigger"  parts,  humorous  Negro  parts,  have  to 
be  taken  by  white  men.  An  anomaly  to  be  reme 
died!  The  profession  of  acting  is  too  noble  a 
one  for  color  prejudice  to  lurk  there.  I  fear, 
however,  that  it  will  be  long  before  mixed  com 
panies  of  white  and  colored  actors  perform  on 
the  dramatic  stage  in  the  United  States. 
"Othello"  apparently  is  seldom  played,  though 
the  old  tragedy  of  Shakespeare  is  strangely  of 
the  time  and  apropos.  The  tragedy  of  Othello 
exhibits  the  same  race  prejudice  existent  in  the 
sixteenth  century  as  now,  and  expresses  itself 
in  similar  terms.  The  white  woman  is  not  for 
Moors  or  Negroes  on  any  terms.  It  is  almost 
incredible  that  Desdemona  should  shun 

The  wealthy  curled  darlings  of  our  nation,  to  incur  a  gen 
eral  mock, 

Run  from  her  guardage  to  the  sooty  bosom 
Of  such  a  thing  as  thou. 

He  must  have  used  an  enchantment  on  her- 
Othello  is  the  devil.  He  is  a  black  man.  He  is  a 
Barbary  horse — 

You'll  have  your  nephews  neigh  to  you. 

You'll  have  coursers  for  cousins  and  gennets  for  Germans. 

There  is  little  doubt  that  by  Othello  Shake 
speare  intended  a  Negro,  or,  in  any  case,  some- 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS  87 

one  whom  the  white  denizens  of  New  Orleans 
would  call  a  nigger.  "Moor"  or  "Blackamoor" 
was  the  common  name  for  Negro,  and  the  local 
detail  of  the  play  confirms  the  impression  of  a 
thick-lipped,  black-bosomed,  rather  repulsive 
physical  type.  The  psychology  of  Othello  is, 
moreover,  that  of  the  modern  Negro.  His  florid 
and  sentimental  talk,  with  its  romantic  yearn 
ing  and  its  exaggerations,  is  very  characteristic. 

I  spake  of  most  disastrous  chances, 
Of  moving  accidents  by  flood  and  field, 
Of  hair-breadth  'scapes  i'  the  imminent  deadly  breach, 
Of  being  taken  by  the  insolent  foe 
And  sold  to  slavery,  of  my  redemption  thence 
And  portance  in  my  travels'  history: 
Wherein  of  antres  vast  and  deserts  idle, 
Rough  quarries,  rocks  and  hills  whose  heads  touch  heaven, 
It  was  my  hint  to  speak, — such  was  the  process; 
And  of  the  Cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 
The  Anthropophagi  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders. 

And  are  not  his  last  noble  words,  with  his  dra 
matic  and  romantic  gesture,  and  his  suicide,  the 
noble  African  set  upon  a  pedestal ! 

Fanny  Kemble  in  her  diary  tells  how  John, 
Quincy  Adams  thought  "it  served  Desdemona 
right  for  marrying  a  'nigger,'  "  and  she  imag 
ines  the  fine  effect  which  some  American  actor 
in  the  role  of  lago  might  obtain  by  substituting 
for  "I  hate  the  Moor"  "I  hate  the  nigger," 
pronounced  in  proper  Charleston  or  Savannah 
fashion.  "Only  think,"  says  Fanny  Kemble, 
"what  a  very  new  order  of  interest  the  whole 
tragedy  might  receive  acted  from  this  stand- 


88        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

point  and  called  t  Amalgamation,  or  the  Black 
Bridal.'  " 

The  sympathy  of  a  Southern  audience  would 
be  almost  exclusively  with  lago  and  Roderigo 
and  the  father.  But  could  they  tolerate  it  with 
out  a  lynching?  No  Negro  company  dare  pro 
duce  it  south  of  the  Mason-Dixon  line. 

How  the  Negroes  would  perform  tragedy  in 
the  vein  of  tragedy  I  do  not  know.  There  is  so 
much  tragedy  in  their  history,  in  their  past,  that 
they  have  sought  only  comic  relief.  I  believe 
the  characteristic  Americanism  of  "Keep  Smil 
ing"  or,  as  expressed  in  the  song,  "Smile, 
Smile,  Smile, "  comes  from  the  Negro.  The  col 
ored  people  as  a  whole  seem  to  be  serious  only 
in  church  or  at  musical  gatherings.  Even  the 
eloquent  pastor  has  no  easy  task  to  gain  the 
attention  of  his  congregation.  He  must  walk 
about  and  rage  and  flash,  and  with  crashing 
reverberations  explode  the  wrath  of  God  like 
the  voice  of  the  Almighty  in  the  storm.  He  must 
forget  ordinary  diction  in  forgetting  himself, 
and  chant  in  ecstasy  and  rapture,  lifting  up  hia 
whole  soul  to  the  Lord.  If  you  talk  to  the  Negro, 
lie  merely  laughs ;  you  must  chant  to  him  to  be 
taken  seriously.  In  this  possibly  lies  the  vein 
for  Negro  dramatic  tragedy  and  prophetic 
poetry.  Perhaps,  however,  the  emotional  appeal 
of  such  will  be  too  strong  for  Whites. 

It  is  a  great  ordeal  for  a  sensitive  white  per 
son  to  take  part  in  a  Negro  revival  or  camp 


OEATOES,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   89 

meeting.  The  emotional  strain  is  tremendous. 
Though  it  is  difficult  to  move  the  Negro,  once  he 
is  moved  he  can  be  rapidly  brought  to  a  frenzy 
which  surely  has  little  enough  to  do  with  the 
Christian  religion.  But  even  when  he  is  not 
greatly  moved  it  is  somewhat  heart-searching 
for  a  white  person  present. 

One  day  I  went  in  at  a  chapel  door.  The  build 
ing  was  full  of  Negroes;  every  seat  seemed 
taken.  Perched  high  above  the  platform  was  a 
black  woman,  all  in  black,  with  a  large  jet  cross 
on  her  broad  bosom.  She  was  reading  from  the 
First  Book  of  Samuel  in  a  great  oracular  voice 
which  never  rose  nor  fell,  but  was  like  a  pro 
nouncement  of  eternal  law.  I  was  taken  right 
up  to  the  front  and  given  a  seat  under  her 
throne.  I  knew  at  once  that  there  was  likely  to 
be  an  emotional  storm  in  the  audience.  It  was 
throbbing  on  the  heartstrings  even  as  I  listened 
to  the  reading,  and  I  wondered  how  I  should 
combat  it.  After  the  Scripture  the  Lord's 
Prayer  was  said  by  a  portentous  Negro  who  had 
the  frame  of  an  African  warrior.  When  he 
went  down  on  his  knees  he  shook  the  beams  of 
wood  and  the  seats.  He  prayed  angrily,  and 
clapped  as  he  prayed,  and  interjected  remarks. 

Thy  will  be  done!  Yes,  Lord,  that's  it,  that's 
what  we  want,  certainly. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread!  Yes,  give 
us  it  (clap,  clap,  clap).  Give  us  our  daily  bread, 
Lord.  Feed  us !  Feed  us,  Lord ! 


90        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

The  congregation  also  on  all  hands  inter 
jected  its  remarks  and  clapped  and  praised  as 
the  Lord 's  Prayer  went  along. 

The  woman  all  in  black  was  a  famous  mover 
of  souls,  and  her  sermon  was  evidently  the  most 
looked-for  religious  excitement  of  the  morning. 
She  was  a  plain  woman  with  a  powerful  will,  a 
great  voice,  and  a  rare  knowledge  of  the  Bible. 
She  preached  from  the  text,  "Saul  hid  himself 
among  the  stuff. "  First  she  told  the  story  in  a 
quiet  voice  and  then  began  to  make  the  appli 
cation.  It  was  no  use  hiding  from  God,  for  He 
would  find  you  out. 

So  rousing  were  her  simple  words,  and  such 
was  the  atmosphere  she  was  begetting  in  the 
midst  of  her  congregation,  that  I  had  to  do 
everything  in  my  power  to  avoid  breaking  down 
under  the  influence  and  sobbing  like  a  child. 

I  went  over  in  my  mind  the  drama  of  "  Mac 
beth,  "  and  reconstructed  "Richard  the  Third/' 
and  called  to  memory  the  speeches  I  had  listened 
to  at  the  Bar  dinner  the  night  before,  and  what  I 
had  been  doing  during  the  past  week  and  month. 
But  all  the  while  I  registered  also  in  my  brain 
the  whole  of  what  the  black  priestess  was 
saying. 

Next  to  me  a  feminine  voice  kept  crying  out : 
"Help  her,  Lord,  help  her!"  and  I  back-pedalled 
for  all  I  was  worth.  Presently  the  preacher  was 
lifted  out  of  the  ordinary,  everyday  voice  into 
a  barbaric  chant,  which  rose  and  fell  and 


ORATORS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   91 

acclaimed  and  declaimed  in  rhythmical  grandeur 
and  music.  I  dared  not  look  at  the  woman  at 
my  side.  But  she  now  lisped  out,  "She's  all 
right  now,  Lord;  she's  all  right  now,"  and  I 
thought  of  the  relief  of  the  Welsh  when  their 
preachers  get  into  the  strain  they  call  the  hwyl. 

I  then  very  cautiously  peered  round  at  the 
woman.  What  was  my  astonishment  to  see  a 
girl  of  eighteen  with  a  face  like  a  huge,  dusky 
melon.  Her  jaws  were  perfectly  relaxed,  her 
eyes  half  shut,  and  her  upper  lip,  which  was 
raised,  exposed  her  smiling  teeth  and  a  layer  of 
sweet  chewing  gum. 

Meanwhile  the  Reverend  Norah  up  above  was 
urging  us  all  to  come  out  from  behind  the  stuff. 
We  were  always  hiding  behind  our  business,  be 
hind  our  families,  behind  our  bodies. 

"They  are  hiding  behind  their  bodies,  O 
Lord! 

"Yes,  0  Lord,  they  say  that  they  are  sick, 
that  they  are  ill, 

"That  they  cannot  do  this  and  they  cannot 
do  that  because  they  are  feeble  in  health. 

"0  come  out  from  behind  the  stuff! 

"You  saw  Saul  hide  behind  the  baggage, 
O  Lord. 

"Our  Negro  brothers  and  sisters  are  hiding 
there  to-day. 

"Hiding  behind  their  wealth 

"Hiding  behind  their  charity 


92        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BKOWN 

4 'Hiding  behind  their  houses  and  their  clothes 
and  their  cars, 

"Yes,  and  their  wives  and  their  husbands, 

"And  other  peoples '  opinions. 

"But  You  see  them,  0  Lord, 

"You  see  them,  and  You '11  bring  them 
out " 

"I'm  hiding  there  right  enough, "  broke  out 
from  the  congregation,  and  "Lord,  save  us  I" 
"Lord,  help  us! " 

The  whole  mass  of  black  humanity  swayed 
under  the  power  of  the  emotion  which  the 
woman  had  kindled.  They  were  about  to  stand 
in  frenzy  and  give  the  great  gospel  shout  of 
repentance,  when  something  happened;  the 
woman 's  strength  gave  way,  and  she  slipped  out 
of  the  chant  back  into  her  ordinary  voice.  At 
once  the  spell  was  broken. 

The  tiniest  tots  in  the  congregation  then  came 
out  carrying  little  jam  jars  which  they  bore 
to  each  individual  for  his  collection,  and  we 
sang  a  rolling  and  clamorous  hymn,  and  all  went 
home. 

One  note  further  in  the  sermon,  and  there 
would  have  been  a  great  scene  of  conversion  at 
the  close  of  the  service,  and  everyone  would 
have  decided  to  come  out  from  behind  his  stuff, 
as  the  preacher  recommended.  But  it's  better 
for  one's  religion  not  to  be  converted  every 
Sunday. 


OBATOKS,  PREACHERS,  SINGERS   93 

Many  white  people  would  no  doubt  be  so 
greatly  amused  by  a  sermon  of  this  kind  that 
they  would  find  difficulty  in  containing  their 
laughter.  One  laugh  from  a  white  stranger 
might  have  proved  calamitous,  and  would  cer 
tainly  have  evoked  hostility.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  Whites  who  love  psycho -physical  reli 
gious  emotionalism.  Such  a  type  is  the  poet  who 
wrote — 

We  mourned  all  our  terrible  sins  away, 

And  we  all  found  Jesus  at  the  break  of  the  day. 

Blessed  Jesus! 

I  never  met  a  Negro  who  thought  it  humorous 
unless  it  were  a  member  of  one  sect  telling  of 
the  "goings-on"  in  another.  Each  different 
race  or  people  seems  to  have  its  different  char 
acteristic  religious  expression.  When  one  has 
seen  the  exaltation  of  Copt  and  Arab  in  religion, 
when  one  has  heard  the  great  choric  voice  of 
Russia  at  church,  and  the  splendid,  purposeful 
faith  of  Teutonic  hymns,  one  knows  that  a  calm 
singing  of  "Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the 
Height !"  is  not  the  only  mode  of  praise. 
There  are  fifty  thousand  ways  of  praising  God, 
and  every  single  one  of  them  is  right. 

So  there  is  no  call  to  chide  the  Negro  for  his 
excess.  His  ways  are  part  of  the  natural  and 
Divine  history  of  Man,  and  it  is  infinitely  worth 
while  to  consider  them  with  an  open  and  chari 
table  mind.  The  hysteria,  the  frenzy,  of  some 
meetings  I  have  observed  is  not  in  the  white 


94        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

man.  There  is  no  use  being  appalled  by  it.  It 
is  the  third  part  which  finishes  the  man  down 
ward,  as  St.  John  says  in  the  desert. 

"And  after  these  emotional  excitements  they 
commit  so  many  murders, "  said  a  Southern 
woman  to  me. 

"If  so,  one  must  be  upon  one's  guard  in  the 
presence  of  a  converted  man,"  said  I. 

The  foundation  of  the  Negro 's  great  religious 
seriousness  is  to  be  found  in  the  Negro  hymn 
or  "  spiritual. "  These  spirituals  were  before 
there  were  Negro  churches,  before  Christianity 
was  actually  allowed  to  the  slaves.  That  is  why 
they  are  more  often  called  plantation  melodies. 
They  were  sung  in  the  twilight  of  the  old  planta 
tions,  and  gave  voice  to  a  great  human  sorrow 
and  a  great  human  need.  They  show  that  the 
Negro  has  obtained  access  to  the  spiritual  deeps, 
that  he  has  a  soul  as  we  have — a  fact  so  often 
denied — and  that  he  is  capable  of  penetrating 
the  sublime.  I  listened  very  often  to  these 
songs.  In  several  places  they  were  sung  to 
honor  a  white  visitor.  I  heard  them  rendered 
by  the  Hampton  Singers  and  lectured  upon  by 
Harry  T.  Burleigh,  to  whose  efforts  in  re 
search  the  preservation  of  several  are  due. 
There  is  no  question  of  the  excellence  of  them. 
They  make  a  great  appeal  to  all  people  who 
have  music  in  their  souls. 

It  is,  however,  a  musical  effect,  not  an  intel- 


OBATOES,  PEEACHEES,  SINGEES   95 

lectual  one.  The  words  have  often  little  rele 
vance  to  anything  profound,  and  at  best  are 
childish.  There  is  generally  a  keynote  which 
murmurs  through  the  whole  of  the  song,  the 
function  of  the  basso-profundo  who  provides  a 
river  of  harmony  like  life  itself,  and  the  tenors 
and  baritones  and  the  shriller  voices  move  on 
this  flowing  base  like  ships.  On  the  rivers  the 
slaves  loved  to  sing  as  they  rowed  their  mas 
ters,  using  most  aptly  the  beat  of  the  oars  and 
the  swish  of  the  water,  while  the  man  who 
stood  at  the  helm  and  steered  was  usually  the 
deep  bass.  One  of  the  most  unforgettable  melo 
dies  is  "0,  Listen  to  the  Lambs!71  The  tenors 
seem  to  imitate  flocks  of  innumerable  sheep  and 
lambs  all  crying  to  one  another,  while  the 
basso-profundo  is  the  irrelevance  of  "I  want 
to  go  to  Heaven  when  I  die,"  continually 
repeated  in  subterranean  mumbling  and 
whispers 

O  listen  to  the  la-ambs 

All  a-cry   .   .    in'.     All  a-cry   .    .    in'. 

An'  I  wan'  to  go  to  Hebn  w'en  I  die! 

" Swing  Low,  Sweet  Chariot, "  "Go  Down, 
Moses,"  " Didn't  Hear  Nobody  Pray,"  "The 
Walls  of  Jericho,"  and  many  others  are  as 
suredly  famous. 

These  and  many  other  phenomena  give  indi 
cations  of  a  distinctive  Negro  point  of  view,  and 
of  an  incipient  broad-based  popular  culture.  A 


96        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

sympathetic  study  will  always  give  evidence 
that  can  be  set  against  the  point  of  view  that  the 
Negro  is  nothing,  or  an  animal,  or  a  scamp  at 
best,  or  a  shame  to  the  species.  I  was  sitting 
in  the  gardens  at  Baltimore  in  the  shade  of  a 
giant  plane  tree  one  day  when  ont  came  a  mixed 
class  of  Negro  boys  and  girls  and  a  young 
eager  colored  master  of  about  twenty-five.  The 
girls  were  luxuriant  "flappers"  of  every  hue  of 
polished  ebony;  the  boys  were  spindle-legged 
and  spry  and  bullet-headed.  They  all  examined 
plants  and  trees  and  caterpillars  and  flowers 
under  the  informing  tutelage  of  the  master. 
They  were  as  noisy  and  vivacious  as  a  flock  of 
birds  that  has  suddenly  lighted  on  a  plain.  They 
minded  no  outsider.  But  a  tall  white  man 
passed  them,  and  I  saw  on  his  face  a  look  of 
unutterable  contempt. 

"Learning  botany "  said  he  to  me  in  a  stage 
whisper.  "They'll  know  as  much  about  it  to 
morrow  morning  as  pigs." 


IV 
IN  TENNESSEE 

THE  South,  they  tell  me,  never  alters.  It  is  said 
to  be  the  least  characteristic  and  most  unin 
teresting  part  of  the  United  States.  "You  will 
not  care  for  it, ' '  I  was  told.  ' '  It  has  not  changed 
in  fifty  years. "  It  is  certainly  little  visited.  It 
does  not  exemplify  the  hustle  and  efficiency  of 
the  North.  And  then  you  cannot  lecture  down 
there.  It  is  not  a  literary  domain.  The  conse 
quence  is  that  in  Great  Britain  many  people 
confound  the  "Southern  States"  with  the 
Republics  of  South  America.  I  was  asked  in 
letters  why  I  had  gone  South.  It  was  thought 
there  must  be  less  interest  there.  But  that  is  a 
mistake.  The  South  is  as  vital  as  the  West  and 
the  East.  On  the  whole  it  is  more  picturesque. 
It  is  not  so  diversified,  but  the  vast  areas  of  cot 
ton  on  the  one  hand  and  of  sugar  and  corn  and 
rice  on  the  other,  and  the  forests,  present  well- 
marked  features  and  give  the  South  a  hand 
some  natural  aspect.  It  is  true  that  the  South 
ern  point  of  view  as  regards  the  Negro  does  not 
change  very  much,  and  that  all  vote  one  way, 
but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  Southern  point 
of  view  as  regards  the  whole  future  of  the 

97 


98        THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

United  States  has  not  been  modified  and  will  not 
change.  The  South  has  been  very  poor  and  is 
becoming  rich,  will  perhaps  become  very  rich 
and  prosperous.  It  was  almost  deprived  of 
political  power,  and  now  it  has,  in  an  extraordi 
nary  way,  regained  political  power.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  opinion  of  a  poor  and  ruined 
man  changes  when  Fortune  makes  up  to  him  for 
the  past.  So  also  with  the  South. 

Then,  in  considering  a  people  as  a  whole,  one 
Is  bound  to  reckon  character.  Thus,  in  Great 
Britain,  what  important  factors  are  the  rugged- 
ness  of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  the  caution 
of  the  Scots,  the  authority-loving  of  the  south 
ern  counties,  the  enthusiasm  and  imaginative 
ness  of  the  Celts.  And  in  America  one  has  to 
reckon,  not  only  with  the  Puritan  fervor  of  New 
England,  but  with  the  determination  and  turbu 
lence  and  group  instinct  of  the  more  cavalier 
spirit  of  the  South.  Though  heat  makes  the 
Southern  women  languid  and  the  Southern  men 
fiery  and  quick  of  temper,  it  does  not  seem  to 
make  them  weaker.  On  the  whole,  the  South 
erner  seems  to  have  a  stronger  will  than  the 
Northerner,  and  despite  the  exuberance  of 
North  and  West,  and  a  flood  of  contrary  ideas 
and  sentiments,  the  Southerner  remains,  as  it 
were,  eternally  incapable  of  being  suppressed. 
As  long  as  America  speaks,  the  South  will 
always  speak.  Therefore,  the  South  is  very  sig 
nificant  in  American  life, 


IN  TENNESSEE  99 

After  Virginia  I  went  by  rail  to  the  neighbor 
ing  State  of  Tennessee.  I  came  into  Knoxville 
one  Friday  night.  The  sight  of  it  in  the  moon 
light  was  impressive — the  broad  railway  bridge, 
the  clock  tower  with  luminous  face,  the  main 
street  flocking  with  a  Tennessee  crowd,  all  shops 
fully  ablaze  with  light;  bunting  and  wreaths 
hung  from  house  to  house — for  it  was  the  week 
of  the  Fair.  A  Salvation  Army  meeting  bel 
lowed  forth  musical  offerings  and  hallelujahs 
"thro'  the  flag-filled  air."  Everywhere  elec 
tric  signs  were  twinkling.  Laughter  and  talk 
walked  arm  in  arm  along  the  broad  main  way. 
"It's  a  fine  city,  this  Knoxville  of  yours,"  I 
ventured  to  remark  to  a  stranger.  "No,  not  a 
fine  city, ' '  said  he,  "a  fine  people,  but  not  a  fine 
city,  a  wretched  city ;  it  needs  pulling  down  and 
rebuilding,  but  fine  people,  the  finest  people  in 
the  world."  This  rare  self -consciousness  and 
belief  in  self,  this  group  feeling,  I  believe,  one 
would  look  in  vain  for  in  the  North. 

"Sober  Knoxville"  is  one  of  the  most  respon 
sible  of  Southern  cities.  Tennessee  as  a  whole 
is  quiet  and  steady.  Lynching  is  infrequent.  It 
was  therefore  considered  very  extraordinary 
that  a  race  riot  should  break  out  in  the  city. 
The  race  riots  in  Chicago  and  Washington  in 
1919  were  no  doubt  worse,  but  none  caused  more 
perplexity  than  that  which  broke  out  at  Knox 
ville  on  August  30th  of  that  year. 

Deplorable  and  terrible  as  were  those  Negro 


100      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

pogroms  of  the  year  after  the  war,  I  think  they 
were  due  to  special  conditions.  They  were  the 
expression  of  the  frustrated  ferocity  that  would 
otherwise  have  gone  into  the  war.  Demobiliza 
tion  excitements  had  much  to  do  with  them — 
the  parades  of  Negro  regiments,  the  idleness  of 
white  troops  and  of  the  demobilized  unem 
ployed.  When  the  complete  transition  to  peace 
conditions  had  been  achieved,  the  danger  of 
these  outbreaks  was  averted.  The  year  1920 
remains  freer  from  race  riots.  That  is  not  to 
say  that  they  may  not  break  out  again,  and  on 
a  larger  scale.  In  any  time  of  social  upheaval 
and  revolution  they  become  possible.  Those 
that  have  occurred  show  an  ugly  animus  against 
the  Negro  still  latent  in  the  common  people  of 
the  cities. 

As  explained  to  me,  the  outbreak  at  Knoxville 
seemed  comparatively  simple  in  origin.  Mr. 
Maures  Mayes,  a  Negro,  murdered  Mrs.  Lind 
say,  a  white  woman.  He  was  arrested  and  sent 
to  a  jail  in  another  city.  A  mob  formed  to  enter 
Knoxville  prison  and  lynch  the  Negro.  But  a 
committee  opened  parley  with  the  governor, 
and  was  allowed  to  satisfy  itself  that  the  pris 
oner  was  not  there.  Apparently,  however,  there 
was  a  considerable  amount  of  whisky  stored  in 
the  prison.  The  whisky  attracted  the  mob  also. 
A  general  assault  was  commenced,  the  place 
was  stormed,  and  all  prisoners  were  released. 
Troops  sent  to  disperse  the  mob  joined  it,  and  a 


IN  TENNESSEE  ;.  ;  101 

second  purpose  tlien  appeared — to  take  revenge 
on  the  colored  population.  Someone  started  a 
rumor  and  it  spread  like  wildfire,  that  thou 
sands  of  Negroes  were  marching  on  the  business 
part  of  the  city  and  that  two  soldiers  had  been 
killed.  The  colored  folk  were  taken  by  surprise 
— there  was  a  great  deal  of  looting  and  destruc 
tion  and  personal  robbery,  and  a  number  of 
Negroes  were  killed,  while  many  were  injured 
It  was  the  first  race  riot  that  had  ever  taken 
place  in  Knoxville,  and  all  reputable  people 
were  sorry  for  it.  I  was  told  it  all  sprang  from 
the  crime  of  one  Negro.  But  one  might  just 
as  well  say  it  all  sprang  from  a  desire  to  have 
the  whisky  in  the  prison — 0  Knoxville,  0  so 
briety  ! 

Because  in  general  the  Negroes  are  well 
treated  in  Knoxville,  this  lapse  has  been  dis 
counted,  and  they  are  surprisingly  free  from 
bitterness.  I  called  at  the  Carnegie  Library  for 
colored  people,  a  quiet  little  building — not  much 
by  comparison  with  the  really  grand  public 
library  of  the  city,  but  still  a  provision,  and 
as  such  to  be  noted,  in  comparison  with  so  many 
other  cities  where  the  Negroes  not  only  have 
not  access  to  the  general  public  libraries,  but 
have  no  separate  provision  made  for  them.  The 
Knoxville  library  for  colored  people  was,  I  be 
lieve,  opened  by  the  mayor  some  years  ago,  and 
the  city  felt  proud  of  what  it  had  done.  It  is 
unfortunately  very  inadequate,  but  it  is  in  the 


102      THE  .SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

charge  of  a  capable  colored  lady  who  will  per 
haps  help  to  "agitate"  a  bigger  and  better  one. 
The  Negroes  are  very  grateful  in  any  case  for 
what  they  have. 

I  called  on  several  representative  Negroes. 
They  were  much  more  friendly  to  the  whites 
than  those  I  found  in  Virginia.  "We  get  on  very 
well  here, ' '  was  a  common  remark.  I  visited  the 

colored  lawyer  H ,  established  in  Knoxville 

some  eight  years.  He  was  in  deshabille  and  was 
sweeping  out  his  office  with  a  hard  brush  and 
shovel.  He  turned  out  to  be  very  lawyer-like  in 
conversation.  I  asked  him  a  whole  series  of 
questions,  to  which  he  answered  "Yes"  or 
"No,"  without  volunteering  any  information 
or  enlarging  in  any  way.  He  called  the  race 
riot  a  "circumstance."  He  said  he  had  won 
cases  even  in  the  Supreme  Court,  and  was  re 
spected  by  the  Bench  for  his  grim  determina 
tion.  After  saying  that,  he  went  to  the  window 
and  spat  violently  into  the  street  below  and  then 
returned. 

I  praised  his  probable  skill  in  handling  juries, 
and  he  was  mollified. 

"I  am  practiced  to  read  men's  faces,"  said 
he.  "I  pick  out  the  man  who  is  likely  to  cause 
trouble  and  address  myself  exclusively  to  him. 
Judges  here  are  absolutely  devoid  of  color 
prejudice." 

A  seeming  half-wit  had  just"  been  sentenced 
to  death  at  the  city  of  Danville  for  accosting 


IN  TENNESSEE  103 

a  white  girl.  The  trial  was  of  the  briefest,  and 
the  Negro's  transit  to  the  electric  chair  was 
made  the  most  rapid  possible — so  as  to  avoid  a 
lynching.  The  lawyer  thought  that  the  sentence 
was  harsh — but  as  long  as  lynching  was  so  prev 
alent,  legal  punishment  had  to  be  severe. 

"Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  white  man  being 
convicted  for  assaulting  a  Negro  f  "  I  asked. 

"No,"  said  he,  constrainedly,  "not  unless  it 
were  an  offense  against  a  child." 

He  did  not  think  Negroes  showed  much  enter 
prise  in  Knoxville — there  were  no  banks,  no 
large  businesses,  no  drug  stores,  though  there 
were  four  colored  lawyers  and  sixteen  doctors. 

After  Lawyer  H I  visited  Mr.  D ,  a 

successful  colored  dentist,  with  well-groomed 
head  and  manicured  hands.  He  was  clad  in  a 
white  hospital  coat  which  was  spotless,  and  by 
the  appurtenances  of  his  cabinet  he  seemed  to 
be  abreast  of  scientific  progress  as  far  as  den 
tistry  was  concerned.  He  had  a  good  practice, 
not  only  among  the  Blacks,  but  with  the  white 
country  population.  He  said  the  old  settlers  had 
no  prejudice  against  a  colored  dentist,  though 
the  younger,  newer  men  and  women  were  dif 
ferent.  While  I  was  talking  a  colored  girl  came 

in  to  have  Mr.  D fill  a  hollow  tooth.  He  said 

the  colored  folk  had  suffered  greatly  with  their 
teeth  in  the  past,  but  were  taking  more  care  of 
them  now.  He  loved  putting  gold  crowns  on 
teeth,  and  most  smart  Negro  young  men  felt 


104      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

a  little  gold  in  the  mouth  was  very  chic — just 
the  thing.  It  is  certainly  a  characteristic  of  the 

modern  Negro.  Mr.  D watched  the  race  riot 

from  his  office  window,  and  was  much  alarmed 

at  the  time.  But,  like  Lawyer  H ,  he  felt 

that  there  was  good  feeling  in  the  city.  He 
thought  it  an  accident.  The  soldiers  had  been 
inflamed  against  the  Negroes. 

In  lack  of  Negro  enterprise  what  a  contrast 
Knoxville  was  to  places  like  Norfolk,  Virginia ! 
I  was  soon  to  realize  that  the  further  South  I 
went  the  more  stagnant  would  Negro  life  show 
itself — until  I  reached  the  point  when  there 
would  be  little  scope  for  investigation.  The 
traveler  going  South  from  Washington  is  let 
gradually  downward  into  a  sort  of  pit  of  degra 
dation.  Chattanooga  is  lower  than  Knoxville, 
Birmingham  lower  than  Chattanooga,  rural 
Georgia  and  Alabama  lower  than  all  of  these. 
This  I  think  ought  to  be  realized  lest  the  glamour 
of  Negro  progress  in  Virginia  and  the  North 
give  a  false  impression  of  the  whole. 

At  Knoxville  it  was  Fair  time.  The  time  when 
I  was  in  the  South  was  one  of  fairs  and  car 
nivals.  As  the  Eussian  goes  on  pilgrimage  when 
the  harvest  has  been  gathered  in,  so  the  Ameri 
can  goes  to  the  Fair  in  the  fall.  There  is  in 
the  South  a  vast  network  of  the  moving  cara 
vans  of  showmen,  and  a  huge  show  business 
quite  novel  to  an  Englishman.  I  arrived  in 
many  towns  at  the  time  of  their  Fair,  and  had 


IN  TENNESSEE  105 

the  greatest  difficulty  in  obtaining  shelter  for 
the  night,  so  crowded  were  they.  The  people 
from  the  country  round  rolled  in  to  the  Fair 
in  their  cars  and  choked  every  thoroughfare. 

One  blemish  on  the  large  State  Fair  is  that, 
except  as  servants,  no  Negroes  are  to  be  seen. 
There  is  a  great  gathering  of  white  people,  but 
no  Blacks.  It  is  therefore  more  polite,  more 
well  dressed,  more  conventional,  and  there  is 
less  of  color  and  life  than  would  fairly  have 
obtained  had  all  been  welcome.  What  is  a  Fair 
if  it  be  not  an  outing  for  the  poor!  It  is  re 
duced  to  this  in  the  South,  that  the  Whites  have 
their  Fairs  and  the  Negroes  have  theirs 
separately. 

I  accompanied  an  Appalachian  sportsman. 
He  told  me  he  shot  a  big,  black  bear  the  day 
the  Armistice  was  signed.  Sure  as  the  first  of 
November  came  round  he  was  out  with  gun  and 
haversack  and  Negro  boys  hunting  the  bear.  He 
hunted  for  the  love  of  hunting,  though  bear's 
flesh  could  be  sold  at  a  dollar  a  pound  and  was 
worth  it,  every  cent.  He  thought  Tennessee  did 
" mighty  well"  in  the  war,  and  they  gave  the 
boys  a  fine  reception  when  they  came  back. 
They'd  had  a  drop  of  whisky  in  them  in  the 
riot,  but  a  few  niggers  less  wasn  't  much  matter. 
He  pointe'd  out  to  me  signs  of  Knoxville  pros 
perity — houses  that  cost  ten  to  twenty  thou 
sand  dollars  to  build — picturesque  and  wooden, 
but  very  costly  from  a  European  point  of  view. 


106      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

No  cotton  was  grown  in  this  district,  and  next 
to  no  tobacco.  Many  people  did  not  even  know 
what  a  stalk  of  cotton  was  like. 

The  Knoxville  Fair  was  a  wondrous  exposi 
tion  of  Southern  hogs  (each  hog  docketed  with 
personal  weight  and  what  it  gains  per  day), 
bulls  and  chickens  and  pigeons  and  rabbits  and 
owls  and  what  not,  and  there  was  a  hall  of  auto 
mobiles  festooned  in  flags.  Caged  lions  and 
tigers  flanked  the  auditorium  of  the  free  vaude 
ville  entertainment.  Negro  boys  flogged  bony, 
grunting  camels  round  the  grounds.  The  pop 
corn  stands  vied  with  the  ice-cream  counters 
stacked  with  cones.  There  was  an  astonishing 
uproar  from  the  various  revolving  "golden 
dreams"  and  of  the  jibbing  metal  horses;  and 
outside  all  manner  of  peep  shows,  men  who  had 
sold  their  voices  talked  till  they  foamed  at  the 
lips  or  went  hoarse — of  the  freaks  and  wonders 
within.  Thus  the  two-headed  child,  the  girl  who 
does  not  die  though  her  half-naked  body  is 
transfixed  with  darts;  the  "whole  dam  family" 
'(apes  dressed  up  as  human  beings) ;  the  ciga 
rette  fiend,  a  thin,  yellow  strip  of  humanity  who 
is  slowly  but  surely  smoking  himself  to  death; 
Bluey,  the  missing  link  between  monkey  and 
man;  the  fire  swallower  from  the  South  Sea 
Islands;  Zarelda,  the  girl  with  a  million  eyes 
(dotted  all  over  her  body),  who  has  baffled  all 
scientists;  the  garden  of  Allah  and  the  garden 
of  lovely  girls;  Leach,  the  human  picture 


IN  TENNESSEE  107 

gallery,  with  the  world's  masterpieces  tattooed 
all  over  his  body;  Dagmar,  the  living  head 
without  a  body  .  .  . 

And  the  owner  of  the  show,  and  of  the  bought 
voice  which  must  not  stop  advertising  it  to  the 
passer  by,  stands  at  one  side  in  shirt  sleeves, 
and  rolls  his  quid  and  spits,  and  seems  to  medi 
tate  on  dollars  and  cents,  ever  and  anon  signal 
ing  to  the  man  with  the  voice  not  to  let  the 
crowd  get  away  without  coming  in.  It  was 
pathetic  to  come  upon  the  freaks,  later,  on  the 
road;  see  Zarelda,  demurely  clad  in  black,  grip 
ping  a  suitcase,  and  realize  that  she  had 
" dates"  all  over  the  South,  and  showed  her 
million  eyes  to-day  in  Knoxville,  then  in  Macon, 
then  in  Savannah,  then  Jacksonville  and  Mobile 
and  New  Orleans  and  a  score  of  other  places, 
sometimes  for  a  day,  sometimes  for  three  days 
or  a  week — not  in  any  sense  a  music-hall  artiste, 
but  a  sort  of  gypsy  by  life  and  by  profession. 
How  tired  the  freaks  must  get,  knocking  about 
from  State  to  State  and  listening  to  the  loud 
laugh  that  speaks  the  vacant  mind. 

One  would  expect  as  the  accompaniment  of 
this  show  life  a  great  number  of  strolling  musi 
cians  and  a  poor  folk  wandering  from  town  to 
town.  But  there  are  practically  none.  Strolling 
musicians  now  obtain  polite  employment  at  the 
many  cinema  houses  where  sensational  pictures 
alternate  with  low  vaudeville.  Southern  talent 
meets  with  a  boisterous  reception  from  the 


108      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

twenty-cent  houses  of  Atlanta  and  New  Orleans. 
One  hears  very  broad  humor  upon  occasion, 
frantic  burlesques  of  the  nervous  hysteria  and 
half-witted  ignorance  of  the  "nigger" — when 
the  white  man  makes  up  as  a  Negro  he  always 
shows  something  lower  than  the  Negro.  At  one 
show  in  New  Orleans  the  whole  audience  roared 
with  mirth  at  a  competition  in  what  was  called 
"fizzing,"  the  spitting  of  chewed  tobacco  in 
one  another's  faces  and  the  bandying  of  purely 
Southern  epithets  and  slang.  Music  is  little  de 
veloped  among  the  Whites,  though  the  singing 
of  "Dixie"  choruses  is  hailed  as  almost  na 
tional.  Musical  instruments  are  now  rare,  even 
among  the  Negroes,  and  seem  to  have  been  dis 
placed  by  the  gramophone.  There  is  no  "grid- 
ling,"  no  beggars  singing  hymns  on  the  city 
streets.  In  the  country  there  are  few  tramps. 
The  ne'er-do-wells  are  to  be  found  more  in 
the  market  places  and  the  cheap  streets.  Pro 
hibition  has  subterraneanized  that  part  of  the 
drink  traffic  which  it  has  not  killed,  and  the 
hitherto  unemployed  find  a  congenial  occupa 
tion  leading  the  thirsty  to  the  "blind  tigers." 
It  is  rare  to  come  across  a  man  on  the  road,  and 
Vachel  Lindsay,  tramping  Georgia  and  reading 
his  poems  to  the  farmers,  must  have  been 
unique,  not  only  as  a  poet,  but  as  a  tramp.  I 
saw  nothing  resembling  the  grand  procession  of 
"hoboes"  that  I  met  when  tramping  to  Chicago 
seven  years  ago.  Perhaps  it  was  because  immi- 


IN  TENNESSEE  109 

gration  had  ceased,  and  throughout  the  whole  of 
America  there  was  a  need  for  labor  which  ab 
sorbed  all  men.  Yet  there  could  have  been  few 
on  the  road  even  before  the  war:  the  vast  num 
ber  of  Blacks  makes  it  unfitting  for  a  white  man 
to  be  tramping,  and  there  is,  moreover,  less 
chance  for  a  white  man  to  get  work  in  any  case. 
Much  is  said  against  the  "poor  "Whites "  or 
"poor  white  trash, "  as  the  white  proletariat  is 
called  by  the  black  proletariat.  They  are  said 
to  be  the  worst  enemies  of  the  Negro,  and  the 
Negro  is  afraid  of  Bolshevism  or  Socialism 
because  he  knows  the  common  white  people, 
"those  who  have  nothing  and  are  nothing,"  are 
the  last  people  likely  to  give  him  justice.  As 
one  of  the  most  popular  of  Negro  leaders  said 
recently:  "As  long  as  Socialism  is  followed  by 
the  lower  classes  of  "Whites,  we  can  see  there  is 
more  danger  coming  from  Socialism  to  the 
Negro  than  from  anything  else,  because  below 
the  Mason  and  Dixon  line  the  people  who  lynch 
Negroes  are  the  low-down  Whites. "  Of  course 
those  crowds  who  joyfully  allow  themselves  to 
be  photographed  around  the  charred  remains  of 
the  Negro  they  have  burnt,  thus  affording  the 
most  terrible  means  of  propaganda  to  Negro 
societies,  are  more  of  the  dull,  uneducated 
masses  than  of  the  refined  and  rich.  They  hate 
the  Negro  more  because  they  are  thrown  more 
in  contact  with  him,  and  their  women  are  more 
accessible  to  him.  They  are  in  competition  with 


110      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

the  Negro  for  work  and  wages,  and  would  gladly 
welcome  a  complete  exodus  to  the  North  or  to 
Liberia,  for  then  their  wages  would  go  up. 
Physically,  and  man  for  man,  they  are  afraid 
of  the  Negro,  and  therefore  they  attack  him  in 
mobs.  Fortunately,  there  are  not  in  the  South 
great  numbers  of  poor  Whites  except  in  the 
large  cities  and  at  the  ports. 

By  contrast  with  the  people  of  the  North,  the 
people  of  the  South  are  noisy,  very  polite  in 
doors,  but  brusque  and  rough  without.  They 
will  do  a  great  deal  for  you  as  a  friend,  but 
not  much  for  you  as  a  stranger.  They  have 
sharp-cut  features,  thin  lips,  blank  brows.  The 
women  do  not  take  on  a  fair  fullness  of  flesh, 
but  are  inclined  to  dry  up  and  fade.  There  are 
an  enormous  number  of  faded  women  every 
where — a  sign,  perhaps,  that  the  climate  does 
not  suit  the  race.  The  accent  seems  to  vary 
with  the  State,  and  Tennessee  speaks  with  far 
more  distinction  than  Georgia,  where  the  "nig 
ger  brogue "  prevails,  and  it  is  difficult  to  tell 
White  from  Black  by  voice.  Nearly  all  r's  are 
dropped.  Moral  character  is  said  to  be  weak, 
but  there  is  nevertheless  a  very  high  standard, 
at  least  in  matters  of  sex.  The  Southern  woman 
is  by  no  means  as  conscious  of  her  charms  as 
the  NortKern  woman,  and  an  unusually  suscept 
ible  male  could  spend  a  quiet  time  in  these  parts. 
Men  are  not  thinking  of  love  and  composing 
poems,  even  though  it  is  the  South,  but  they  are 


IN  TENNESSEE  111 

if  anything  keener  on  business  and  money. 
Most  people  seemed  suspicious  of  strangers,  not 
communicative,  but  once  they  have  taken  the 
stranger  to  their  hearts  they  easily  become 
warm-heartedly  effusive. 

As  a  stranger  I  encountered  a  surprising 
lack  of  civility  at  a  " non-union"  plough  com 
pany  at  Chattanooga.  The  employees  were 
mostly  Negroes,  and  I  called  on  the  white  super 
intendent  to  obtain  permission  to  go  over  the 
works.  A  heavy-jowled  fellow  kept  me  wait 
ing  half  an  hour  in  an  anteroom,  and  then  not 
only  refused  point-blank  to  let  me  see  condi 
tions  in  his  factory,  but  was  so  brusque  in  his 
manner  that  I  was  forced  to  give  him  my  mind 
roundly  on  his  lack  of  courtesy,  not  to  me  per 
sonally,  but  to  a  literary  man.  As  a  rich  busi 
ness  man  he  seemed  to  consider  the  profession 
of  letters  as  dirt  under  his  feet.  I  must  say  I 
felt  shame  to  be  so  angry,  and  I  was  much 
amused  some  weeks  later  to  read  in  a  Chatta 
nooga  newspaper  picked  up  by  accident  that 
Billy  Sunday  had  visited  this  city  and  had 
preached  in  the  said  works,  and  at  the  close  of 
his  address,  the  superintendent  being  present, 
all  the  employees  were  en  bloc  converted  to 
Christ. 

Chattanooga  is  a  larger  city  than  Knoxville, 
better  built  and  more  spacious.  One  has  entered 
the  rayon  of  Southern  steel  and  coal.  Its  many 
factory  chimneys  and  its  sooty  sky  testify  to 


112      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

considerable  industrialism.  As  in  its  sister  city 
of  Birmingham,  Alabama,  there  are  many  non 
union  shops.  A  great  steel  strike  was  in  prog 
ress  in  the  United  States,  but  while  the  workers 
in  the  North  stood  their  ground  in  a  long  and 
bitter  struggle,  there  was  scarcely  the  sem 
blance  of  a  walkout  in  places  like  Chattanooga 
and  Birmingham.  Northern  labor  trouble 
seemed  to  mean  Southern  capitalistic  pros 
perity. 

One  reason  why  Southern  labor  remains  to  a 
great  extent  unorganized  is  the  Negro  difficulty. 
Unions  are  not  ready  to  accept  Negro  member 
ship.  Therefore  the  Negro  can  always  be 
brought  in  to  do  the  white  man's  work  if  the 
latter  goes  on  strike.  Whether  union  or  non 
union,  the  wages  seem  fairly  high.  I  talked  with 
a  Negro  moulder  who  earned  on  an  average  six 
dollars  a  day.  That  is  over  eighteen  hundred 
dollars  American,  and  about  five  hundred 
pounds  British  money  a  year.  A  non-union  un 
skilled  man  would,  however,  earn  little  more 
than  two  dollars  a  day — which,  with  the  cost  of 
food  so  high,  is  very  little. 

I  noticed  a  difference  in  the  attitude  of  the 
colored  population  in  Chattanooga.  It  was 
much  more  depressed  than  that  of  Knoxville  or 
the  Virginian  cities.  Nothing  terrible  had  oc 
curred  in  Chattanooga,  but  there  was  said  to 
be  a  bad  mob,  and  what  had  happened  at  Knox 
ville  had  frightened  them.  The  newspapers 


IN  TENNESSEE  113 

contained  intimidating  news  paragraphs.  On 
September  26th,  at  Omaha,  Nebraska,  the  mob 
had  burned  down  the  courthouse,  lynched  a 
Negro,  and  tried  to  lynch  also  the  mayor,  E.  P. 
Smith,  who  was  twice  hoisted  to  a  lamp-post 
because  he  refused  to  hand  over  a  prisoner  to 
the  mob.  "As  I  stood  under  that  lamp-post  with 
the  mob's  rope  necktie  circling  my  neck  and 
listened  to  the  yells  'Lynch  him,'  I  took  the 
same  course  any  true  American  would  have 
taken,"  said  the  mayor.  In  the  face  of  death 
he  refused  to  yield  his  authority  to  Judge 
Lynch.  That  was  at  Omaha,  in  the  West.  On 
September  29th  two  Negroes  were  lynched  by; 
twenty-five  masked  men  at  Montgomery,  Ala 
bama,  for  alleged  assault  of  a  white  woman. 
On  October  1st  the  terrifying  color  riot  broke 
out  at  Elaine,  Arkansas,  on  a  dispute  over  cot 
ton  prices.  On  October  6th  two  Negroes  were 
burned  at  the  stake  and  three  were  shot  to 
death  at  Washington,  Georgia,  for  supposed 
complicity  in  the  murder  of  a  deputy  sheriff. 
Next  day,  at  Macon,  Eugene  Hamilton  was 
lynched  for  attempted  murder,  and  so  on. 
Since  the  Civil  War  one  could  scarcely  find  a 
more  bloody  and  terrible  period.  And  the  poor 
Whites  of  Chattanooga  kept  hinting  that  Chat 
tanooga's  turn  would  soon  come.  I  was  told 
Negroes  did  not  care  to  stray  far  from  their 
homes  in  the  suburbs  after  dark.  They  were 
tormented  and  mauled  on  their  way  home  from 


114      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

church.  The  Jim  Crow  portion  of  the  trolley 
car  was  invaded  by  roughs  trying  to  start 
trouble.  In  some  cities  in  the  South  the  Negroes 
have  all-black  motor  omnibuses  and  jitneys 
running.  These  would  obviate  much  of  the  dan 
ger  of  the  trolley  car  which  has  only  a  straw 
screen  between  the  races.  But  Negro  enterprise 
has  not  risen  to  motor  omnibuses  in  depressed 
Chattanooga.  From  a  white  point  of  view,  the 
city  might  be  improved  by  more  light.  It  is  a 
dark  and  extensive  place.  The  great  companies 
do  not  want  to  lose  their  Negroes  and  might  do 
more  to  keep  them.  I  found  the  Negroes  scared, 
and  many  were  ready  to  seize  the  first  oppor 
tunity  to  go  northward.  Mr.  T said,  "They 

might  kill  us  all."  Mrs.  W said:  "All  who 

have  children  want  to  go  away.  There'll  be  no 
chance  for  our  children  here.  Before  the  war 
it  was  much  better,  but  they  seem  to  dislike  us 
more  now.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  if 
none  of  our  men  had  gone  to  the  war."  I  en 
deavored  to  reassure  most  of  those  with  whom 
I  talked,  for  they  had  an  exaggerated  idea  of 
their  danger. 

At  Chattanooga  there  was  no  library  for  the 
colored  people.  There  seemed  to  be  little  Negro 
business.  I  was  at  once  introducd  to  the  drug 
gist  and  the  undertaker.  Undertaking  and  drug- 
selling,  which  includes  ice-cream-soda  dispens 
ing,  seem  the  most  popular  business  enter 
prises  among  the  Negroes.  Wherever  three  or 


IN  TENNESSEE  115 

four  polite  Negroes  were  gathered  together  and 
I  was  talking  to  them  someone  would  say, 
"Permit  me  to  introduce  Undertaker  So-and- 
So,  and  the  latter  would  smile  blandly  and  offer 
his  brown  hand.  At  Chattanooga  I  visited  a 
swell  establishment  and  looked  over  a  show 
room  of  elegant  coffins,  and  I  was  shown  into 
the  parlor  and  the  embalming  room,  where  on 
a  stone  slab  the  bodies  were  prepared.  This 
undertaker  had  started  originally  with  one  cof 
fin,  and  had  now  become,  as  I  saw,  one  of  the 
rich  men  of  the  city.  Funerals  cost  between  a 
hundred  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and 
were  usually  defrayed  by  the  insurance  com 
panies. 

I  found  the  large  East  Side  drug  store,  kept 
by  a  young  man  who  had  been  in  charge  of  the 
pneumonia  ward  of  the  92nd  Divisional  Hos 
pital  in  France.  He  had  as  many  white  cus 
tomers  as  colored.  He  did  not  sell  much  patent 
medicine,  as  he  said  the  attitude  of  the  United 
States  Government  to  patent  medicines  had  be 
come  most  severe.  He  was  a  fully  qualified 
chemist.  Doctors  prescribed  and  he  dispensed 
in  the  ordinary  way.  Yes,  many  were  surprised 
to  find  a  Negro  chemist  in  a  position  of  authority 
in  a  hospital,  but  that  was  due  to  white  people's 
ignorance  of  the  progress  made  by  colored  stu 
dents  of  medicine. 

I  greatly  enjoyed  "Joseph's  Bondage,'*  a 
dramatic  cantata  sung  by  a  colored  choir. 


116      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Evidently  the  Negroes  had  composed  the  cantata 
themselves,  for  the  verbiage  was  very  quaint 
and  simple.  In  a  packed  hall  to  be  the  only 
Whites  was  for  myself  and  the  lady  who  was 
with  me  a  curious  position.  It  caused  a  whole 
row  of  seats  to  remain  empty  in  the  midst  of  a 
crowded  house.  No  Negro  male  dared  sit  down 
next  to  the  white  woman  for  fear  of  what  I 
might  do.  However,  when  I  left  my  place  to 
talk  to  a  Negro  I  knew  in  another  part  of  the 
hall  the  empty  line  filled  up  mechanically. 

The  production  of  the  cantata  was  quite 
amusing.  Potiphar's  guards  were  the  smartest 
possible,  being  ex-soldiers  from  Pershing's 
army,  upright  Negro  boys  in  khaki.  But  Poti- 
phar  was  in  blue,  and  looked  like  a  man  in 
charge  of  an  elevator,  and  wore  the  slackest  of 
pants.  Leva,  his  wife,  pawed  Joseph  over  and 
yowled:  "I  love  you,  I  love  you."  Pharaoh, 
with  glistening  steel  crown  and  steel  slippers, 
was  impressive.  Joseph  as  a  slave  was  the 
Negro  workingman  in  his  shirt ;  as  Vizier,  how 
ever,  with  the  purple  on  him,  he  looked  very 
grand,  and  the  jubilee  chorus  which  he  sang 
when  at  length  Pharaoh  stepped  down  and  he 
sat  in  Pharaoh's  seat,  was  very  jolly,  swaying 
to  one  side  of  the  crowd  around  him  and  sing 
ing  to  them,  swaying  to  the  other  side  and  sing 
ing  to  them,  and  then  to  all  and  God 

I  did  not  leave  the  city  without  attending 
church,  and  I  heard  a  little  black  Boanerges 


IN  TENNESSEE  117 

give  a  brilliant  address.  He  walked  up  and 
down  his  rostrum  with  arms  folded,  and  cooed 
and  wheedled,  but  ever  and  anon  crouching  and 
exploding,  lifting  his  hand  to  strike,  bawling, 
even  yelling  to  humanity  and  the  Almighty.  In 
dumb  show  he  pulled  the  rope  of  a  poor  fellow 
being  lynched — and  sent  straight  to  hell.  He 
spoke  of  the  race  riots,  and  then  suddenly  be 
coming  breathless,  as  if  he  were  a  messenger 
just  arrived  with  bad  tidings,  he  flung  both 
arms  wide  apart,  dilated  his  eyeballs,  and  cried 
in  a  terrorizing  shriek — "there  is  riot  and  anar 
chy  in  the  land." 

He  had  chosen  a  fine  combination  of  texts 
for  his  sermon:  "Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his 
skin  or  the  leopard  his  spots?  That  which  is 
born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  and  that  which  is  born 
of  the  Spirit  is  Spirit. " 

Though  a  complete  stranger,  I  was  singled 
out  and  brought  to  the  front  to  give  the  congre 
gation  a  Christian  greeting.  I  told  them  I  had 
read  in  a  Negro  paper  that  "the  Negro  church 
had  failed.  Prayer  had  been  tried  for  fifty 
years  and  had  been  proved  to  be  no  use."  And 
I  said  what  I  firmly  believe  to  be  true,  that  only 
Christianity  can  save  color. 

The  orator  was  much  pleased  and  said  to  his 
congregation:  "See  what  God  has  sent  us  this 
Sunday  morning,"  and  he  invited  me  to  give 
the  address  in  the  evening.  We  had  an  amus 
ing  altercation  on  the  platform.  "I  do  not  know 


118      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

what  to  call  him,  or  who  he  is ;  he  may  be  any 
body,  a  doctor,  a  professor,  a "  he  looked 

at  me  inquiringly. 

"Oh,  plain  Mr.,"  said  I. 

He  hung  on,  however,  to  "Professor"  till  I 
interrupted  him  again. 

At  the  close  of  my  address  the  deacons  came 
out  to  assess  the  congregation  in  the  matter  of 
collection.  They  looked  it  up  and  down  and  de 
cided  that  twenty-two  dollars  was  the  amount 
that  could  be  raised.  So  with  their  solemn  faces 
they  stared  patiently  at  the  congregation  while 
the  plates  went  round.  The  collection  was 
counted,  and  was  found  to  be  considerably  less. 
So  the  deacons  addressed  themselves  once  more 
to  the  congregation,  averring  that  some  of  the 
young  men  were  holding  back.  Then  for  five 
minutes  individuals  were  moved  to  come  up 
singly  and  make  additional  offerings.  Progress 
was  reported,  and  then  more  individuals  came 
up  till  the  assessment  had  been  realized. 

Then  the  most  touching  thing  occurred.  The 
pastor  turned  to  me  and  offered  to  share  the 
collection  with  me. 

' '  Oh,  no ! "  I  whispered  hurriedly,  feeling,  per 
haps,  rather  shocked  at  the  idea. 

"He  says  'Oh,  no/  "  said  the  pastor  to  the 
congregation. 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA 

TRAVELING  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta  the 
mind  inevitably  reverts  to  the  American  Civil 
War,  for  in  1863  the  victory  of  the  North 
marched  from  Chattanooga  and  the  famous 
battle  of  Lookout  Mountain  to  the  taking  of 
Atlanta  and  the  discomfiture  of  Georgia.  The 
glorious  Stars  and  Stripes  came  victoriously 
out  of  the  Northern  horizon,  climbed  each  hill, 
dipped  and  climbed  again,  with  a  clamorous, 
exultant  Northern  soldiery  behind  it.  General 
Sherman  began  to  gather  his  great  fame,  while 
General  Lee,  the  adventuresome  Southern 
leader,  allowed  himself  to  be  cut  off  in  Virginia. 
The  efforts  of  the  South  had  been  very  pic 
turesque,  like  the  play  of  a  gambler  with  small 
resources  and  enormous  hopes,  but  the  shades 
of  ruin  gathered  about  her  and  began  to  nega 
tive  the  charm  of  her  beginnings.  Lincoln  had 
proclaimed  the  freedom  of  the  slaves.  The 
South  pretended  that  in  any  case  slavery  could 
not  survive  the  war,  and  in  token  of  this  she 
enlisted  Negro  soldiers,  making  them  free  men 
from  the  moment  of  enlistment.  In  military 
extremity  policy  promises  much  which  after- 
no 


120      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

wards  ingrate  security  will  not  ratify.  The 
Southern  planter  might  have  obtained  some 
measure  of  indemnification  for  the  loss  of  his 
slaves  had  he  come  to  terms  in  time.  But  he 
hoped  somehow  he  might  win  the  right  to  man 
age  his  Negroes  as  he  wished  without  interfer 
ence.  There  was  the  same  violent  state  of  mind 
on  the  subject  of  the  Negroes  as  slaves  as  there 
is  now  on  the  subject  of  the  Negroes  as  free  men. 
All  that  was  missing  was  the  white-woman  talk. 
Though  originally  the  colonists  had  been  gener 
ally  opposed  to  the  introduction  of  slavery,  yet 
slavery  had  taken  captive  and  then  poisoned 
most  men's  minds.  The  South  chose  to  fight 
to  the  end  rather  than  sacrifice  the  institution 
prematurely.  There  was  a  pride,  as  of  Lucifer, 
in  the  Southerner,  too,  a  belief  in  himself  that 
foredoomed  him  to  be  hurled  into  outer  dark 
ness  and  to  fall  through  space  for  nine  days. 
Sherman 's  army,  when  it  burned  Atlanta  and 
marched  through  Georgia  laying  the  country 
waste,  was  inspired  with  something  like  the 
wrath  of  God. 

In  order  to  see  the  ex-slave  and  ex-master 
to-day,  it  is  necessary  to  dwell  not  only  in  cities 
but  in  the  country,  and  I  chose  to  walk  across 
the  State  of  Georgia  as  the  best  way  to  ascer 
tain  what  life  in  the  country  was  like.  And  I 
followed  in  the  way  Sherman  had  gone.  There, 
if  anywhere,  it  seemed  to  me,  the  reactions  of 
the  war  and  of  slavery  must  be  apparent  to-day. 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEOEGIA  121 

Sherman  was  something  of  a  Prussian.  He 
was  a  capable  and  scientific  soldier.  From  an 
enemy's  standpoint,  he  was  not  a  humanitarian. 
War  to  him  was  a  trade  of  terror  and  blood, 
and  he  was  logical.  "You  cannot  qualify  war 
in  harsher  terms  than  I  will,"  said  he.  "War 
is  cruelty,  and  you  cannot  refine  it."  And  when 
he  had  captured  Atlanta  he  ordered  the  whole 
population  to  flee. 

If  they  cared  to  go  North,  they  would  find 
their  enemies  not  unkind.  If  they  thought  there 
was  safety  in  the  South — then  let  them  go  fur 
ther  south  to  whatever  protection  the  beaten 
Southern  Army  could  afford. 

So  North  and  South  they  fled,  the  people  of 
Atlanta,  but  mostly  South,  for  they  were  bit 
ter;  and  the  roads  filled  with  the  pitiful  array 
of  thousands  of  men  and  women  and  children 
with  their  old-fashioned  coaches,  with  their  bar 
rows,  with  their  servants,  with  those  faithful 
Blacks  who  still  heeded  not  the  fact  that  "the 
day  of  liberation  had  arrived."  All  under  safe- 
conduct  to  Hood's  army. 

What  complaints,  what  laments,  as  the  proud 
Southern  population  took  the  road.  A  lamenta 
tion  that  is  heard  till  now !  And  when  the  people 
had  gone,  the  city  of  Atlanta  was  set  on  fire. 
Sherman  had  decided  to  march  to  the  sea,  and 
he  could  not  afford  to  leave  an  enemy  popula 
tion  in  his  rear,  nor  could  he  allow  the  chance 
that  secret  arsenals  might  exist  there  after  he 


122      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

had  gone.  It  was  a  never  to  be  forgotten  spec 
tacle,  '  '  the  heaven  one  expanse  of  lurid  fire,  the 
air  filled  with  flying,  burning  cinders. "  "We 
were  startled  and  awed,"  says  a  soldier  who 
marched  with  the  rest,  "seeing  vast  waves  and 
sheets  of  flames  thrusting  themselves  heaven 
ward,  rolling  and  tossing  in  mighty  billows — a 
gigantic  sea  of  fire."  Small  explosions  arranged 
by  the  engineers  were  punctuated  by  huge  ex 
plosions  when  hidden  stores  of  ammunition 
were  located,  and  while'  these  added  ruin  to 
ruin  in  the  city  they  sounded  as  lugubrious  and 
awful  detonations  to  the  soldiery  on  the  road. 
Depots,  churches,  shops,  warehouses,  homes 
flared  from  every  story  and  every  window. 
Those  who  remained  in  the  town  were  few,  but 
it  was  impossible  not  to  be  stirred  if  not  ap 
palled.  A  brigade  of  New  England  soldiers  was 
the  last  to  leave,  and  marched  out  by  Decatur 
Street,  led  by  the  band  of  the  33rd  Massachu 
setts  regiment,  playing 

John  Brown's  body  lies  a-mould'ring  in  his  grave 
His  soul  is  marching  on — 

the  lurid  glare  of  the  fire  gleaming  upon  their 
bayonets  and  equipment,  inflaming  their  vis 
ages  and  their  eyes  which  were  already  burn 
ing  with  the  war  faith  of  the  North. 

That  was  in  the  fall  of  1864.  Years  have 
passed  and  healed  many  wounds.  Now  it  is 
Atlanta  in  the  fall  of  1919  and  the  crush  of  the 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  123 

Fair  time.  All  Georgia  is  at  her  capital  city. 
The  automobiles  are  forced  to  a  walking  pace, 
there  are  so  many  of  them,  and  they  vent  their 
displeasure  in  a  multiform  chorus  of  barking*, 
howling,  and  hooting.  So  great  is  the  prosper 
ity  of  the  land  that  the  little  farmer  and  the 
workingman  have  their  cars,  not  mere  "Ford 
runabouts,"  but  resplendently  enameled,  ca 
pacious,  smooth-running,  swift-starting  coaches 
where  wife  and  family  disport  themselves  more 
at  home  than  at  home.  Atlanta's  new  life  has 
grown  from  the  old  ruins  and  hidden  them,  as 
a  young  forest  springs  through  the  charred 
stumps  of  a  forest  fire.  On  each  side  Atlanta's 
skyscrapers  climb  heavenward  in  severe  lines, 
and  where  heaven  should  be  the  sky  signs 
twinkle.  Every  volt  that  can  be  turned  into 
light  is  being  used.  The  shops  and  the  stores 
and  the  cinemas  are  dazzling  to  show  what  they 
are  worth.  The  sidewalks  are  thronged  with 
Southern  youth  whose  hilarious  faces  and  gre 
garious  movements  show  a  camaraderie  one 
would  hardly  observe  in  the  colder  North. 
Jaunty  Negro  boys  mingle  with  the  crowd  and 
are  mirthful  among  themselves — as  well 
dressed  as  the  "Whites,  sharing  in  the  "record 
trade"  and  the  boom  of  the  price  of  cotton. 
They  are  not  slaves  to-day,  but  are  lifted  high 
with  racial  pride  and  the  consciousness  of  uni 
versities  and  seminaries  on  Atlanta's  hills, 
and  successes  in  medicine,  law,  and  business  in 


124      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

the  city.  They  roll  along  in  the  joyous  freedom 
of  their  bodies,  and  make  the  South  more  South 
ern  than  it  is.  How  pale  and  ghostlike  the 
South  would  seem  without  its  flocks  of  colored 
children,  without  those  many  men  and  women 
with  the  sun  shadows  in  their  faces ! 

"We  love  our  niggers  and  understand 
them, ' '  say  the  Whites,  repeating  their  formula, 
and  you'd  think  there  was  no  racial  problem 
whatever  in  the  South,  to  see  the  great  "Gate 
City"  given  over  to  merriment  unrestrained 
and  many  a  Negro  colliding  with  many  a  White 
youth  and  yet  never  a  fight — nothing  on  the 
crowded  streets  to  exemplify  the  accepted  hos 
tility  of  one  to  the  other.  One  has  the  thought 
that  perhaps  Atlanta  did  not  burn  in  vain,  and 
that  the  South  as  well  as  the  North  believes  in 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  of  John  Brown. 

The  tobacco-chewing,  smiling,  guffawing 
crowds  of  the  street,  and  Peachtree  Street 
jammed  with  people  and  cars !  What  a  hubbub 
the  four  jammed-up  processions  of  automobiles 
are  making — like  choruses  of  hoarse  katydids 
crying  only  for  repetition 's  sake  and  the  lust  of 
noise!  But  there  is  more  noise  and  more  joy 
still  a-coming!  Skirling  and  shrieking,  in 
strange  contrast  to  the  Negroes  and  to  the 
clothed  Whites  and  to  the  color  of  night  itself, 
comes  the  parade  of  college  youths  all  in  their 
pajamas  and  nightshirts.  Long  queues  of 
some  hundreds  of  lads  in  white  shouting  at  the 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEOEGIA  125 

top  of  their  voices — they  climb  in  and  out  of 
the  electric  cars,  rush  into  shops  and  thea 
tres  in  a  wild  game  of  "Follow  my  leader. " 
Rah,  rah,  rah,  they  cry,  rah,  rah,  rah,  and  rush 
into  hotels,  circle  the  foyer,  and  plunge  among 
the  amazed  diners  in  the  dining  rooms,  thread 
their  way  around  tables  and  up  the  hotel  bal 
ustrade,  invade  bedrooms,  go  out  at  windows 
and  down  fire  escapes,  and  then  once  more  file 
along  the  packed  streets  amidst  autos  and 
cars,  raving  all  the  while  with  pleasure  and 
excitement.  It  is  good  humor  and  boisterous- 
ness  and  the  jollity  of  the  Fair  time.  Up  above 
all  the  flags  and  the  bunting  wave  listlessly  in 
the  night  air.  It  seems  impossible  but  that  the 
firing  of  Atlanta  is  forgotten,  and  the  pitiful 
exodus  of  its  humiliated  people — forgotten  also 
the  exultancy  of  the  soldiers  of  the  North  sing 
ing  while  the  city  burned. 

Sherman  with  60,000  men  and  2500  wagons 
but  only  60  guns  marched  out,  and  none  knew 
what  his  destination  was.  A  retreat  from 
Atlanta  comparable  only  to  Napoleon 's  retreat 
from  Moscow  was  about  to  commence.  The  hos 
tile  farming  population  of  Georgia  and  the 
Carolinas  should  harass  the  Yankee  army  as  the 
Eussian  peasants  had  done  the  French  in  1812. 
That  was  the  Southern  belief  and  the  substance 
of  Southern  propaganda  at  the  time.  Not  so  the 
Northern  Army,  which  had  the  consciousness  of 
victory  and  a  radiant  belief  in  its  cause  and  in 


126      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

its  general.  "A  feeling  of  exhilaration  seemed 
to  pervade  all  minds,  a  feeling  of  something 
to  come,  vague  and  undefined,  still  full  of 
venture  and  intense  interest.  Even  the  common 
soldiers  caught  the  inspiration,  and  many  a 
group  called  out:  'Uncle  Billy,  I  guess  Grant 
is  waiting  for  us  at  Eichmond.'  The  general 
sentiment  was  that  we  were  marching  for  Eich- 
mond  and  that  there  we  should  end  the  war,  but 
how  and  when  they  seemed  to  care  not,  nor  did 
they  measure  the  distance,  or  count  the  cost  in 
life,  or  bother  their  brains  about  the  great  riv 
ers  to  be  crossed  and  the  food  required  for  man 
and  beast  that  had  to  be  gathered  by  the  way. ' ' 

Sherman  himself  had  not  decided  on  what 
point  exactly  he  would  march.  But  he  never  in 
tended  to  march  against  Lee  at  Eichmond, 
though  the  South  and  his  own  soldiers  believed 
it.  He  always  designed  to  reach  the  sea  and  re 
open  maritime  communication  with  the  North, 
and  kept  in  mind  Savannah,  Port  Eoyal,  and 
even  Pensacola  in  North  Florida.  So  universal 
was  the  belief  that  he  was  marching  on  Eich 
mond  by  way  of  Augusta  that  in  all  the  coun 
try  districts  of  Georgia  where  the  left  wing 
marched  they  will  tell  you  still  that  the  enemy 
was  marching  on  Augusta. 

•You  shall  maintain  discipline,  patience,  and 
courage,  said  Sherman  to  his  army.  And  I  will 
lead  you  to  achievements  equal  to  any  of  the 

*  "Sherman's  Memoirs." 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  127 

past.  We  are  commencing  a  long  and  difficult 
march  to  a  new  base,  but  all  the  chances  of  war 
have  been  provided  for.  The  habitual  order  of 
march  will  be  by  four  roads  as  nearly  parallel 
as  possible.  The  columns  will  start  habitually  at 
7  a.  m.  and  make  about  15  miles  a  day.  The 
army  will  forage  liberally  on  the  country  dur 
ing  the  march.  Horses,  mules,  and  wagons  be 
longing  to  the  inhabitants  may  be  appropriated 
by  the  cavalry  and  artillery  freely  and  without 
limit,  discriminating,  however,  between  the  rich, 
who  are  usually  hostile,  and  the  poor  and  indus 
trious,  usually  neutral  or  friendly.  All  foragers 
will  refrain  from  abusive  or  threatening 
language,  and  they  will  endeavor  to  leave  each 
family  reasonable  means  of  sustenance.  Ne 
groes  who  are  able-bodied  and  serviceable  may 
be  taken  along  if  supplies  permit.  All  non-com 
batants  and  refugees  should  go  to  the  rear  and 
be  discouraged  from  encumbering  us.  Some 
other  time  we  may  be  able  to  provide  for  the 
poor  Whites  and  Blacks  seeking  to  escape  the 
bondage  under  which  they  are  now  suffering.  To 
corps  commanders  alone  is  entrusted  the  power 
to  destroy  mills,  houses,  cotton  gins,  etc.,  but 
the  measure  of  the  inhabitants'  hostility  should 
be  the  measure  of  the  ruin  which  commanders 
should  enforce.* 

There  was  much  more   said  in  those  very 
finely  written  and  emphatic  orders,  but  the  sen- 

*  Field  Orders  119  and  120,  abbreviated. 


128      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

tence  that  captured  the  imagination  of  the  com 
mon  soldier  was  certainly  '  *  the  army  will  forage 
liberally  on  the  country "  which  at  once  became 
a  common  gag  among  the  men.  For  it  spelt 
loot  and  fun  and  treasure  trove  and  souvenirs 
and  everything  else  that  stirs  a  soldier's  mind. 
There  is  a  human  note  throughout  the  whole 
of  General  Sherman's  orders,  but  no  softness, 
rather  an  inexorable  sternness.  He  had  no 
patience  with  the  cause  of  the  Eebels  nor  with 
their  ways  of  fighting.  He  and  his  staff  were 
not  averse  from  the  idea  of  reading  the  popula 
tion  of  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  a  terrible 
lesson.  While  the  march  was  military  it  inev 
itably  became  punitive.  The  cotton  was  de 
stroyed,  the  farms  pillaged,  the  slaves  set  free, 
the  land  laid  waste.  It  was  over  a  compara 
tively  narrow  strip  of  country,  but  Sherman 
-was  like  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  descending 
upon  it. 

So  out  marched  the  four  divisions  (14th, 
15th,  17th,  and  20th)  joyously  singing  as  they 
went  the  soldiers'  songs  of  the  war — 

One  and  Free 

and 

He  who  first  the  Flag  would  lower 
SHOOT  HIM  ON  THE  SPOT. 

and  all  manner  of  variants  of  John  Brown  to 
the  Glory  Hallelujah  chorus. 

The  way  out  from  Atlanta  is  now  a  road  of 
cheap  shops  and  Jewish  pawnbrokers,  Negro 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  129 

beauty  parlors,  bag  shops,  gaudy  cinema  and 
vaudeville  sheds,  fruit  stalls  and  booths  of 
quack  doctors  and  magic  healers,  vendors  of  the 
Devil's  corn  cure,  fortune  tellers,  and  what  not. 
A  Negro  skyscraper  climbs  upward.  It  is  de 
cidedly  a  "colored  neighborhood, "  and  rough 
crowds  of  Negro  laborers  and  poor  Whites  frolic 
through  the  litter  of  the  street.  Painfully  the 
electric  cars  sound  their  alarms  and  budge  and 
stop,  and  budge  again,  threading  their  way 
through  the  masses,  glad  to  get  clear  after  half 
a  mile  of  it  and  then  plunge  into  the  compara 
tive  spaciousness  of  villadom  outside  the  city. 

It  is  not  as  it  was  of  yore.  Where  the  bloody 
July  battle  of  Atlanta  raged  a  complete  peace 
has  now  settled  down  amid  the  dignified  habita 
tions  of  the  rich.  Trees  hide  the  view,  and  chil 
dren  play  upon  the  lawns  of  pleasant  houses 
while  the  older  folk  rock  to  and  fro  upon  the 
chairs  of  shady  verandas. 

Dignified  Decatur  dwells  on  its  hill  by  the 
wayside,  and  has  reared  its  pale  monument  to 
the  Confederate  dead.  On  this  white  obelisk  the 
cause  of  the  South  is  justified.  Within  sight  of 
it  rises  an  impressive  courthouse,  which  by  its 
size  and  grandeur  protests  the  strength  of  the 
law  in  a  county  of  Georgia. 

There  was  a  gloomy  sky  with  lowering 
clouds,  and  a  warm,  clammy  atmosphere  as  if 
the  air  had  been  steamed  over  night  and  was 
now  cooling  a  little.  The  road  leaving  behind 


130      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

Decatur  and  the  suburbs  of  Atlanta  became 
deep  red,  almost  scarlet  in  hue,  and  ran  between 
broad  fields  of  cotton  where  every  pod  was 
bursting  and  puffing  out  in  cotton  wool.  Men 
with  high  spindle-wheeled  vehicles  came  with 
cotton  bales  done  up  in  rough  hempen  netting. 
Hooded  buggies  rolled  sedately  past  with  spec 
tacled  Negroes  and  their  wives.  Drummers  in 
Ford  cars  tooted  and  raced  through  the  mud. 
Thus  to  Ingleside,  where  a  turn  in  the  road  re 
veals  the  huge  hump  of  Stone  Mountain,  shad 
owy  and  mystical  like  uncleft  Eildons.  All  the 
soldiers  as  they  bivouacked  there  or  marched 
past  on  that  bright  November  day  of  '64  re 
marked  the  mountain,  and  their  gaze  waa 
turned  to  it  in  the  spirit  of  curiosity  and  adven 
ture. 

I  fell  in  with  a  Mr.  McCaulay  who  was  a  child 
when  Sherman  marched  through.  He  thought 
the  Germans  in  Belgium  hardly  equaled  Sher 
man.  Not  only  did  his  troops  burn  Atlanta  but 
almost  every  house  in  the  country.  He  pointed 
out  new  houses  that  had  sprung  up  on  the  ruins 
of  former  habitations. 

.  .  .  "A  fence  used  to  run  right  along  here, 
and  there  were  crops  growing.  No,  not  cotton; 
there  was  not  the  demand  for  cotton  in  those 
days,  and  not  nearly  so  much  grown  in  the 
State.  Over  on  that  side  of  the  road  there  was 
a  huge  encampment  of  soldiers,  and  I  remem 
ber  stealing  out  to  it  to  listen  to  the  band. 


MAECHING  THROUGH  GEOEGIA  131 

"The  foragers  came  to  the  houses  and  took 
every  bit  of  food — left  us  bone  dry  of  food. 
They  also  took  our  horses  and  our  mules  and 
our  cows  and  our  chickens.  Sometimes  a  fam 
ily  would  have  a  yoke  of  oxen  hidden  in  the 
wood,  but  that  would  be  all  that  they  had. 
Everyone  had  to  flee,  and  all  were  destitute.  It 
was  a  terrible  time.  But  we  all  stood  by  one  an 
other  and  shared  one  another's  sorrows  and 
helped  one  another  as  we  could. 

"All  colored  folk  also  sto'od  by  us.  I  expect 
you've  read,  ' Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,'  and  'The 
Leopard's  Spots,'  but  the  picture  is  terribly 
overdrawn  there." 

"I  did  not  know  these  told  the  story  of  the 
march,"  said  I. 

"They  do  not.  But  they  give  an  account  of 
the  Negroes  that  is  entirely  misleading.  The 
North  has  queered  the  Negro  situation  by  send 
ing  all  manner  of  people  down  here  to  stir  the 
Negro  up  against  us.  Till  we  said,  'You  and 
your  niggers  can  go  to  the  devil'— and  we  left 
them  alone. 

"But  that  was  a  mistake,  and  we  are  realiz 
ing  it  now,  and  intend  to  take  charge  of  the  edu 
cation  of  the  Negro  ourselves,  and  be  respon 
sible  for  him  spiritually  as  well  as  physically. 
There  never  was  a  better  relationship  between 
us  than  there  is  now. 

"And  I — I  was  brought  up  among  them  as  a 
child,  as  an  equal,  played  with  them,  wallowed 


132      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BKOWN 

with  them  in  the  dirt,  slept  with  them.  They're 
as  near  to  me  as  flesh  and  blood  can  be." 

It  was  curious  to  receive  this  outpouring 
when  I  had  not  mentioned  the  Negro  to  him  at 
all  and  seemed  merely  curious  concerning  Sher 
man's  march.  It  is,  however,  characteristic  of 
the  South:  the  subject  of  the  treatment  of  the 
Negro  recurs  like  idee  fixe. 

At  Lithonia,  after  a  meal  of  large  yellow 
yams  and  corn  and  chicken  and  biscuits  and 
cane  syrup,  I  called  on  old  Mrs.  Johnson,  who 
lived  over  the  way  from  Mrs.  Jones.  Lithonia 
was  much  visited  by  the  cavalry.  Decatur  was 
stripped  of  everything,  and  Lithonia  fared  as 
badly  in  the  end.  Men  came  into  the  farmyard 
and  there  and  then  killed  the  hogs  and  threw 
them  on  to  waiting  wagons.  These  were  forag 
ers  from  the  camps  outside  Atlanta.  But  one  day 
someone  came  with  the  news — "  Sherman  has 
set  fire  to  the  great  city  and  he'll  be  here  to 
morrow.  ' '  And  sure  enough  on  the  morrow  his 
army  began  to  appear  on  the  road — the  van 
guard,  and  after  that  there  seemed  no  end  to 
the  procession.  The  army  was  all  day  march 
ing  past  with  its  commissariat  wagons  and  its 
water  wagons,  its  horses,  its  mules,  and  regi 
ment  after  regiment.  The  despoiled  farm  wives 
and  old  folk  could  not  help  being  thrilled, 
though  they  were  enemies.  General  Slocum, 
who  commanded  the  left  wing  of  the  army, 
wrote  his  name  in  pencil  on  granny's  doorpost 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEOEGIA  133 

when  he  stopped  at  her  house  with  one  or  two 
of  his  staff. 

The  Confederate  soldiers  were  "Johnny 
Rebs"  and  the  Union  soldiers  were  "Billy 
Yanks."  Neither  side  was  known  to  have  com 
mitted  any  crimes  against  women  or  children, 
and  the  latter  were  crazy  to  watch  the  Yanks 
go  by,  though  often  their  fathers  were  away  in 
the  hard-pressed  Rebel  armies. 

As  I  walked  along  the  red  road  betwixt  the 
fluffy  cotton  fields  from  village  to  village  and 
from  mansion  to  mansion,  those  stately  farm 
houses  of  the  South,  I  was  always  on  the  look 
out  for  the  oldest  folk  along  the  way.  The 
young  ones  knew  only  of  the  war  that  was  just 
past,  the  middle-aged  thought  of  the  old  Civil 
War  as  somewhat  of  a  joke,  but  the  only  thing 
the  old  folks  will  never  laugh  over  is  the  great 
strife  which  with  its  before  and  after  made  the 
very  passion  of  their  lives.  So  whenever  I  saw 
an  old  man  or  woman  sitting  on  a  veranda  by 
the  wayside  I  made  bold  to  approach  and  ask 
what  they  knew  of  the  great  march,  and  how  it 
had  affected  them,  and  the  Negroes. 

They  told  of  the  methodical  destruction  of  the 
railways,  and  of  the  innumerable  bonfires  whose 
flames  and  smokes  changed  the  look  of  the  sky. 
Every  rail  tie  or  sleeper  was  riven  from  its  bed 
of  earth  and  burned,  and  the  long  steel  rails 
were  heated  over  the  fires.  To  make  the  fires 
bigger  timber  was  brought  from  the  woods,  and 


134      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

every  rail  was  first  made  red-hot  and  then 
twisted  out  of  shape — the  favorite  plan  being 
for  three  or  four  soldiers  to  take  the  hot  rail 
from  the  fire,  place  it  between  two  trunks  of 
standing  pines,  and  then  push  till  it  was  bent 
nigh  double. 

They  told  of  the  stillness  after  the  army  had 
gone,  and  of  the  sense  of  ruin  which  was  upon 
them  with  their  cotton  destroyed,  and  all 
their  stores  for  the  winter  pillaged,  and  their 
live  stock  driven  off.  An  old  dame  told  me  how 
the  only  live  animal  in  her  neighborhood  was  a 
broken-down  army  horse  left  behind  to  die  by 
the  enemy.  The  folk  were  starving,  but  a 
woman  resuscitated  the  horse  and  went  off  with 
him  to  try  and  bring  food  to  the  village.  She 
walked  by  his  side  for  fear  he  would  drop  down 
dead — and  first  of  all  she  sought  a  little  corn  for 
the  horse,  for  "Old  Yank"  as  she  called  him. 
Many  a  weary  mile  they  walked  together,  only 
to  find  that  "Sherman's  bummers "  had  been 
there  before  her.  She  slept  the  night  in  a  Negro 
hut  (a  thing  no  white  woman  would  dream  of 
doing  now)  and  the  Negroes  fed  her  and  gave 
corn  to  the  horse  and  sent  her  on  her  way.  Out 
of  several  old  buggies  and  derelict  wheels  a 
"contrapshun"  had  been  rigged  out  and  tied  to 
the  old  horse,  but  it  was  not  until  beyond  Cov- 
ington  and  Conyers  that  a  place  was  found 
which  the  foragers  had  missed,  and  the  strange 
buggy  was  loaded  for  home. 


MAECHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  135 

I  spent  a  night  in  Conyers  in  beautiful  coun 
try,  and  was  away  early  next  morning  on  the 
Covington  road.  The  road  was  shadowy  and  san 
guine.  The  heavy  gossamer  mist  which  closed 
out  the  view  of  the  hills  clothed  me  also  with 
white  rime.  Warm,  listless  airs  stole  through 
the  mist.  On  my  right,  away  over  to  the  heavi 
ness  of  the  mist  curtain,  was  a  sea  of  dark  green 
spotted  and  flecked  with  white ;  on  my  left  was 
the  wretched  single  track  of  the  railway  to  Cov 
ington  rebuilt  on  the  old  levels  where  it  was 
destroyed  in  '64.  Wooden  carts  full  to  the  rim 
with  picked  cotton  rolled  clumsily  along  the  red 
ruts  of  the  road,  and  jolly-looking  Negroes 
sprawled  on  the  top  as  on  broad,  old-fashioned 
cottage  feather  beds.  And  ever  and  anon  there 
overtook  me  the  inevitable  "  speed  merchants, " 
hooting  and  growling  and  racketing  from  one 
side  to  the  other  of  the  broken  way.  I  sat  down 
on  a  stone  in  an  old  wayside  cemetery,  sun- 
bleached  and  yet  hoary  also  with  mist.  Such 
places  have  a  strange  fascination,  and  I  knew 
some  of  those  who  lay  beneath  the  turf  had  lain 
unwitting  also  when  the  army  went  by.  What 
old-fashioned  names — Sophronias  and  Simeons 
and  Claramonds  and  Nancies!  On  most  of  the 
graves  was  the  gate  of  heaven  and  a  crown,  and 
on  some  were  inscribed  virtues,  while  on  one 
was  written  "He  belonged  to  the  Baptist 
Church."  The  oldest  stones  had  all  fallen  and 
been  washed  over  with  red  mud.  Among  the 


136      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

old  were  graves  of  slaves,  I  was  told,  but  since 
the  war  no  Black  has  been  buried  with  the 
"White. 

An  old  Negro  in  cotton  rags,  grizzled  white 
hair  on  his  black,  weather-beaten  face,  told  me 
where  the  colored  folk  lay  buried  half  a  mile 
away,  where  he,  too,  would  lay  down  his  old  back 
and  rest  from  cotton  picking  at  last.  "But  on 
de  day  ob  Judgment  dere  be  no  two  camps," 
said  he.  "No,  sir  ...  only  black  and  white 
souls."  He  remembered  the  joy  night  and  the 
jubilation  after  the  army  passed  through,  and 
how  all  the  colored  boys  danced  and  sang  to  be 
free,  and  then  the  disillusion  and  the  famine  and 
the  misery  that  followed.  The  old  fellow  was  a 
cotton  picker,  and  had  a  large  cotton  bag  like  a 
pillow  case  slung  from  his  shoulders — an  ante 
diluvian  piece  of  Adamite  material  with  only 
God  and  cotton  and  massa  and  the  Bible  for  his 
world. 

While  sitting  on  this  wayside  stone  I  have 
the  feeling  that  Sherman 's  army  has  marched 
past  me.  It  has  gone  over  the  hill  and  out  of 
view.  It  has  marched  away  to  Milledgeville  and 
Millen  and  Ebenezer  and  Savannah,  and  not 
stopped  there.  It  has  gone  on  and  on  till  it  be 
gins  marching  into  the  earth  itself.  For  all  that 
are  left  of  Sherman's  warriors  are  stepping  in 
ward  into  the  quietness  of  earth  to-day. 

The  mist  lifts  a  little,  and  the  hot  sun  streams 
through.  The  crickets,  content  that  it  is  no 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  137 

longer  twilight,  have  ceased  chirping,  and  ex 
quisite  butterflies,  like  living  flames,  are  on  the 
wing.  It  is  a  beautiful  part  of  the  way,  and 
where  there  is  a  sunken,  disused  road  by  the  side 
of  the  new  one  I  take  it  for  preference.  For 
probably  it  was  along  that  the  soldiers  went. 
Now  young  pines  are  springing  from  their  foot 
steps  in  the  sand. 

Here  no  cars  have  ever  sped,  and  for  a  long 
while  no  foot  has  trod.  The  surface  is  smooth 
and  unfooted  like  the  seashore  when  the  tide 
has  ebbed  away,  and  bright  flowers  greet  the 
wanderer  from  unfarmed  banks  and  gullies.  So 
to  Almon,  where  an  old  gaffer  told  me  how  he 
and  some  farm  lads  with  shotguns  had  deter 
mined  they  would  "get"  Sherman  when  he 
came  riding  past  with  his  staff,  and  how  they 
hid  behind  a  bush,  where  the  Methodist  church 
is  now  standing,  and  let  fly.  Sherman  they 
missed,  but  hit  someone  else  and  they  fled  to 
the  woods.  He  lost  both  his  hat  and  his  gun  in 
the  chase  which  followed,  but  nevertheless  got 
away.  Not  that  I  believed  in  its  entirety  the  old 
man's  story.  It  was  his  pet  story,  told  for  fifty 
years,  and  had  become  true  for  him.  I  came 
into  Covington,  a  regular  provincial  town, 
whose  chief  feature  is  its  large  sandy  square 
about  which  range  its  shops  with  their  scanty 
wares.  There  I  met  another  old  man,  a  captain 
who  served  under  Lee,  and  indeed  surrendered 
with  him,  He  had  been  beside  Stonewall  Jack- 


138      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

son  when  the  latter  died.  He  was  now  eighty- 
four  years,  haunting  the  Flowers  Hotel. 

' '  This  world 's  a  mighty  empty  place,  believe 
me, "  said  he.  " Eighty-four  years  .  .  .!" 

He  seemed  appalled  at  his  own  age. 

6 '  Threescore  and  ten  is  the  allotted  span  .  .  . 
At  seventeen  I  went  gold  digging  .  .  .  seeking 
gold  ...  it  was  the  first  rush  of  the  digging 
mania  in  California,  but  I  only  got  six  hundred 
dollars  worth." 

"At  seventeen  years  many  their  fortunes  seek 
But  at  fourscore  it  is  too  late  a  week" 

said  I  sotto  voce. 

"A  mighty  empty  place,"  repeated  the  old 
captain,  rocking  his  chair  in  the  dusk.  "Yes, 
Sherman  marched  through  here.  He  burned  all 
the  cotton  in  the  barns.  I  was  born  here,  and 
lived  here  mos'  all  my  life,  but  I  was  with  Lee 
then.  That  war  ought  never  to  have  been.  No, 
sir.  It  was  all  a  mistake.  We  thought  Abraham 
Lincoln  the  devil  incarnate,  but  knew  after 
wards  he  was  a  good  friend  to  the  South. 
It's  all  forgotten  now.  We  bear  the  North  no 
grudge  except  about  the  niggers " 

He  interrupted  himself  to  greet  a  pretty  girl 
passing  by,  and  he  seemed  offended  if  any 
woman  passed  without  smiling  up  at  him.  But 
when  he  resumed  conversation  with  me  he  re 
verted  to  "The  world's  getting  to  be  a  mighty 
empty  place  .  .  .  eighty-four  years  .  .  .  threescore 
and  ten  is  the  allotted  span,  but  ..." 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  139 

I  turn  therefore  to  the  witness  of  the  time, 
and  the  genius  who  conceived  the  march  and 
watched  his  soldiers  go.  Thus  Sherman  wrote 
of  Covington:  "We  passed  through  the  hand 
some  town  of  Covington,  the  soldiers  closing  up 
their  ranks,  the  color  bearers  unfurling  their 
flags,  and  the  bands  striking  up  patriotic  airs. 
The  white  people  came  out  of  their  houses  to 
behold  the  sight,  spite  of  their  deep  hatred  of 
the  invaders,  and  the  Negroes  were  simply  fran 
tic  with  joy.  Whenever  they  heard  my  name 
they  clustered  about  my  horse,  shouted  and 
prayed  in  their  peculiar  style  which  had  a  natu 
ral  eloquence  that  would  have  moved  a  stone.  I 
have  witnessed  hundreds,  if  not  thousands  of 
such  scenes,  and  can  see  now  a  poor  girl  in  the 
very  ecstasy  of  the  Methodist  'shout/  hugging 
the  banner  of  one  of  the  regiments  and  jump 
ing  to  the  'feet  of  Jesus'  ...  I  walked  up  to 
a  plantation  house  close  by,  where  were  assem 
bled  many  Negroes,  among  them  an  old  gray- 
haired  man  of  as  fine  a  head  as  I  ever  saw.  I 
asked  him  if  he  understood  about  the  war  and 
its  progress.  He  said  he  did ;  that  he  had  been 
looking  for  the  ' Angel  of  the  Lord'  ever  since 
he  was  knee-high,  and  though  we  professed  to 
be  fighting  for  the  Union  he  supposed  that  slav 
ery  was  the  cause,  and  that  our  success  was  to 
be  his  freedom  .  .  ." 

That  was  the  characteristic  Negro  point  of 
view — the  expectation  of  the  "Coming  of  the 


140      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Lord/'  the  coming  of  the  angel  of  deliverance. 
Their  only  lore  was  the  Bible,  and  their  especial 
guide  was  the  Old  Testament.  Despite  all  talk 
of  their  masters,  talk  which  would  have  been 
dismissed  as  "  eye  wash'*  in  the  war  of  1918,  they 
believed  that  God  had  sent  to  rescue  them.  They 
waited  the  miraculous.  Sherman  was  God's 
messenger. 

So  the  glorious  sixty  thousand  broke  into 
quiet  Georgia — carrying  salvation  to  the  sea — in 
an  ever  memorable  way.  The  foe,  stupefied  by 
defeat,  was  massing  on  the  one  hand  at  Augusta 
and  on  the  other  at  Macon,  bluffed  on  the  left 
and  on  the  right,  while  in  the  center  the  un- 
probed  purpose  of  the  general  reigned  in  secret 
but  supreme. 

The  Twentieth  Corps  on  the  extreme  left  went 
by  Madison,  giving  color  to  a  proposed  attack 
on  Augusta.  The  Fifteenth  feinted  at  Macon, 
the  cavalry  galloping  right  up  to  that  city  and 
inviting  a  sortie.  The  Seventeenth  Corps  was  in 
close  support  of  the  Fifteenth,  and  the  Four 
teenth  kept  in  the  center.  It  was  the  route  of  the 
Fourteenth  that  I  decided  to  follow,  and  it  was 
also  the  way  along  which  went  Sherman  himself. 
It  was  generally  understood  by  the  Fourteenth 
Corps  that  Milledgeville  was  its  object  at  the 
end  of  a  week's  marching.  The  order  of  march 
for  the  morrow  was  issued  overnight  by  army 
commanders  to  corps  commanders  and  then 


MARCHING  THEOUGH  GEORGIA  141 

passed  on  to  all  ranks.  The  men  slept  in  the 
open,  and  beside  watch  fires  which  burned  all 
night.  Outposts  and  sentries  kept  guard,  though 
there  were  few  alarms.  The  warm  Southern 
night  with  never  a  touch  of  frost,  even  in  No 
vember,  passed  over  the  sleeping  army.  Reveille 
was  early,  commonly  at  four  o'clock,  when  the 
last  watch  of  the  night  was  relieved.  The  un 
wanted  clarion  shrilled  through  men's  slum 
bers,  blown  by  urgent  drummer  boys.  The 
bugles  of  the  morning  sounded,  and  then 
slowly  but  unmistakably  the  whole  camp 
began  to  rouse  from  its  stertorousness,  and 
one  man  here,  another  there,  would  start  up 
to  stir  the  smouldering  embers  of  the  fires  and 
make  them  all  begin  to  blaze;  and  then  began 
the  hubbub  of  cleaning  and  the  hubbub  of  cook 
ing,  the  neighing  of  horses,  the  clatter  of  wagon- 
packing  and  harnessing.  Reveille  was  made 
easier  by  the  prospects  of  wonderful  breakfasts 
— not  mere  army  rations,  the  bully  and  hard 
tack  of  a  later  war,  but  all  that  a  rich  country 
side  could  be  made  to  provide — "  potatoes  fry 
ing  nicely  in  a  well-larded  pan,  the  chicken 
roasting  delicately  on  the  red-hot  coals,  the 
grateful  fumes  of  coffee,"  says  one  chronicler  of 
the  time — fried  slices  of  turkey,  roast  pig,  sweet 
yams,  sorghum  syrup,  and  corn  fortified  the  sol 
dier  for  the  day's  march.  Horses  and  mules  also 
fared  astonishingly  well,  and  amid  braying  and 
neighing  and  pawing  huge  quantities  of  fodder 


142      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

were  provided.  Then  once  more  insistent  bugles 
called ;  knapsacks  and  equipment  were  strapped 
on,  the  horses  and  mules  were  put  in  the  traces, 
the  huge  droves  of  cattle  were  marshaled  into 
the  road,  and  the  army  with  its  officers  and 
sergeants  and  wagons  and  guns  and  pontoons 
and  impedimenta  of  every  kind  (did  not  Sher 
man  always  carry  two  of  everything?)  moved 
on. 

There  was  something  about  the  aspect  of  the 
army  on  the  march  that  was  like  a  great  mov 
ing  show.  The  musical  composition  of  "March 
ing  Thro'  Georgia"  has  caught  it: 

Hurrah!    Hurrah!    We  bring  the  Jubilee! 
All  hail  the  flag,  the  flag  which  sets  you  free! 
So  we  brought  salvation  from  Atlanta  to  the  Sea, 
When  we  were  marching  thro'  Georgia. 

The  clangor  of  brass,  the  braying  of  mules, 
the  shouts  of  the  soldiers,  the  ecstasy  of  the 
Negroes,  and  then  the  proud  starry  flag  of  the 
Union ! 

The  procession  has  all  long  since  gone  by,  and 
men  speak  of  the  famous  deeds  "as  half -forgot 
ten  things/'  It  is  a  quiet  road  over  the  hill  and 
down  into  the  vale  with  never  a  soldier  or  a 
bugle  horn.  Cotton,  cotton,  cotton,  and  cotton 
pickers  and  tiny  cabins,  and  then  maize  stalks, 
corn  from  which  long  since  the  fruit  has  been 
cut,  now  withered,  warped,  shrunken,  half  fallen 
in  every  attitude  of  old  age  and  despair,  It  is  a 


MAKCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  143 

diversified  country  of  hill  and  dale,  with  occa 
sionally  a  huge  gray  wooden  mansion  with 
broad  veranda  running  round,  and  massive  col 
umns  supporting  overhanging  roof.  The  col 
umns,  which  are  veritable  pine  trunks  just 
trimmed  and  planed  or  sawn,  give  quite  a  clas 
sical  air  to  the  Southern  home.  Sometimes 
there  will  be  seven  or  eight  of  these  sun-bleached 
columns  on  the  frontage  of  a  house,  and  the 
first  impression  is  one  of  stone  or  marble. 

The  Southern  white  man  builds  large,  has 
great  joy  in  his  home,  and  would  love  to  live  on 
a  grand  scale  with  an  army  of  retainers.  The 
Negro  landowner  does  not  imitate  him,  and 
builds  a  less  impressive  type  of  home,  neither 
so  large  nor  so  inviting.  Rich  colored  farmers 
are,  however,  infrequent.  The  mass  of  the  Negro 
population  is  of  the  laboring  class,  and  even 
those  who  rent  land  and  farm  it  for  themselves 
are  very  poor  and  sunk  in  economic  bondage. 
Their  houses  are  mostly  one-roomed  wooden 
arks,  mere  windowless  sheds  resting  on  four 
stones,  a  stone  at  each  corner.  Furniture,  if  any, 
was  of  a  rudimentary  kind.  "See  how  they 
live,"  said  a  youth  to  me.  "Just  like  animals, 
and  that's  all  they  are." 

< « Why  don 't  you  have  any  windows  ?  "  I  asked 
of  a  girl  sitting  on  the  floor  of  her  cabin. 

"They  jus7  doan'  make  'em  with  windows," 
she  replied.  "But  we've  got  a  window  in  this 
side," 


144      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

"Yes,  but  without  glass. " 

"Ah,  no,  no  glass. " 

"Is  it  cold  in  winter?" 

"Yes,  mighty  cold." 

Some  cabins  were  poverty-stricken  in  the  ex 
treme.  But  in  others  there  were  victrolas,  and 
in  cases  where  the  merest  amenities  of  life  were 
lacking  you  would  find  a  ramshackle  Ford  car. 
On  the  road  Negroes  with  cars  were  almost  as 
common  as  white  men,  and  some  Negroes  drove 
very  furiously  and  sometimes  very  skillfully. 
There  were  no  foot  passengers  on  the  road.  I 
went  all  the  way  to  Milledgeville  before  I  fell 
in  with  a  man  on  foot  going  a  mile  to  a  farm. 
The  current  Americanism,  Don't  walk  if  you 
can  ride  seemed  to  have  been  changed  into,  Don't 
stir  forth  till  you  can  get  a  lift,  and  white  men 
picked  up  Negroes  and  Negroes  white  men  with 
out  prejudice,  but  with  an  accepted  understand 
ing  of  use  and  wont.  I  was  looked  upon  with 
some  doubt,  and  scanned  from  hurrying  cars 
with  puzzlement.  Lonely  Jasper  County  had  not 
seen  my  like  before.  But  saying  "Good  day!" 
and  "How  d'ye  do?"  convinced  most  that  the 
strange  foot  traveler  was  an  honest  Christian. 
Lifts  were  readily  proffered  by  men  going  the 
same  way.  Those  who  whirled  past  the  other 
way  may  have  reflected  that  since  I  was  on  foot 
I  must  have  lost  my  car  somewhere. 

A  common  question  put  to  me  was,  "What 
are  you  selling?"  and  people  were  a  little  dumb- 


MAECHING  THROUGH  GEOEGIA  145 

founded  when  I  said  I  was  following  in  Sher 
man's  footsteps.  That  had  not  occurred  to  them 
as  a  likely  occupation  on  a  hot  afternoon.  I  felt 
rather  lite  a  modern  Eip  Van  Winkle  who  had 
overslept  reveille  by  half  a  century  and  was  try 
ing  in  vain  to  catch  up  with  the  army  which  had 
long  since  turned  the  dusty  corner  of  the  road. 
Still,  the  Southerners  were  surprisingly 
friendly.  They  said  they  knew  nothing  about  it 
themselves,  and  then  took  me  to  the  old  folk 
who  remembered.  The  old  folk  quavered  forth 
— "It's  a  long,  long  time  ago  now."  It  inter 
ested  them  always  that  I  had  been  in  the  Ger 
man  war  and  had  marched  to  the  Ehine,  and 
they  were  full  of  questions  about  that.  * '  Oh,  but 
this  war  was  not  a  patch  on  that  one,"  they 
said.  "I  tell  them  they  don't  know  what  war  is 
yet — what  we  suffered  then,  what  ruin  there 
was,  how  we  had  to  work  and  toil  and  roughen 
our  white  hands,  and  eat  the  bread  of  bitterness 

like  Cain " 

After  the  Civil  War  the  initial  struggle  of  the 
settlers  and  pioneers  in  the  founding  of  the  col 
ony  had  to  be  repeated.  Everyone  had  to  set  to 
and  work.  The  help  of  the  Negroes  was  at  first 
diminished  or  entirely  cut  off.  Even  the  neces 
sary  tools  were  lacking.  Nevertheless  there  was 
now  a  surprising  absence  of  bitterness.  "The 
war  had  to  be.  Slavery  was  bad  for  the  South, 
and  it  took  the  war  to  end  it"  was  an  opinion  on 
all  men's  mouths.  "When  President  McKinley 


146      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

said  that  the  character  of  Robert  E.  Lee  was  the 
common  inheritance  of  both  North  and  South  he 
healed  the  division  the  war  had  made, ' '  I  heard 
someone  say.  Even  of  Sherman,  thougn  there 
were  bitter  memories  of  him,  there  were  not  a 
few  ready  to  testify  to  his  humaneness — for  in 
stance,  this  from  a  poor  store  keeper: 

"I  suppose  you're  not  old  enough  to  remem 
ber  the  Civil  War?" 

"  'Deed,  sir,  I  do." 

"Do  you  remember  Sherman's  march?" 

"Yes,  I  was  only  a  child,  but  it  made  a  pow 
erful  impression  on  me.  My  father  was  killed 
in  the  war.  And  we  were  scared  to  death  when 
we  heard  Sherman  was  coming.  But  he  never 
did  me  any  harm.  An  officer  came  up,  asked 
where  my  father  was,  learned  he  was  dead. 
And  he  made  all  the  soldiers  march  past  the 
house,  waited  till  the  last  one  had  gone,  then  sa 
luted  and  left  us.  Captain  Kelly  was  his  name, 
and  I  shall  never  forget  his  face,  it  was  all 
slashed  about  with  old  scars.  He  was  a  brave 
man,  I'm  sure  .  .  .  No,  they  didn't  do  mucii 
harm  hereabout,  except  to  those  who  had  a  lot 
of  slaves  or  to  those  who  had  treated  their  nig 
gers  badly.  If  they  found  out  that  a  man  had 
been  ill-treating  his  niggers  they  stripped  his 
house  and  left  him  with  not  a  thing " 

On  the  other  hand  the  rich,  the  owners  of 
large  plantations,  remained  in  many  cases  still 
virulent, 


MARCHING  THROUGH  GEORGIA  147 

"I  know  Sherman  is  in  hell,"  said  a  Mr. 

E of  historic  family.  "When  my  mother 

lay  sick  in  bed  the  soldiers  came  and  set  fire  to 
our  cotton  gin  and  all  our  barns.  They  came 
upon  us  like  a  tribe  of  Indians  and  burst  into 
every  room,  ransacking  the  place  for  jewelry 
and  valuable  property.  I  was  a  small  boy  at  the 
time,  but  I  shall  never  forget  it.  They  took  the 
bungs  from  all  our  barrels  and  let  the  syrup  run 
to  waste  in  the  yard  because  they  themselves 
wanted  no  more  of  it.  They  killed  our  hogs  and 
our  cows  before  our  eyes  and  threw  the  meat  to 
the  niggers.  Yes,  sir.  A  year  or  so  back  Sher 
man's  son  said  he  was  going  to  make  a  tour 
along  the  way  his  daddy  had  gone — to  see  what 
a  wonderful  thing  his  daddy  had  done.  Lucky 
for  him  he  changed  his  mind.  We'd  a  strung 
him  to  a  pole,  sure " 

Such  sharp  feeling  was,  however,  certainly 
exceptional.  Near  Eatonton  was  a  Mr.  Lynch  of 
Lynchburg,  storekeeper,  postmaster,  wheel 
wright,  and  blacksmith  all  in  one.  He  averred 
that  they  were  "hugging  and  kissing  the 
Yankees  now,  just  as  they  would  be  hugging  and 
kissing  the  Germans  in  a  few  years." 

"There's  mean  fellows  on  every  side,"  said 
he.  "You  don't  tell  me  that  there's  no  mean 
fellows  among  the  English,  the  French,  and  the 
Italians.  I  don't  believe  all  the  stories  about 
the  Germans.  I  remember  what  they  used  to 
say  about  the  Yankees.  They  get  mighty  mad 


148      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

with  me  when  I  tell  'em,  but  there's  plenty  of 
mean  fellows  on  both  sides. " 

The  village  was  named  after  the  old  man's 
grandfather — an  Irish  settler.  It  is  just  beside 
the  old  Eatonton  factory  which  Sherman  burned 
down.  At  the  next  turn  in  the  road  there  is  a 
roaring  as  of  many  waters.  A  screen  of  pine 
and  rank  grass  undergrowth  hides  an  impres 
sive  sight.  A  step  inward  takes  you  to  the  ro 
mantic  stone  foundation  of  the  old  factory;  you 
tan  climb  up  on  one  of  the  pillars  and  look  out. 
The  interior  of  the  factory  is  all  young  trees  and 
moss  and  tangles  of  evergreen,  but  beyond  it 
rushes  a  mighty  stream  over  a  partially 
dammed  broad  course,  red  as  blood,  but  wal 
lowing  forward  in  creamy  billows  and  white 
foam. 

The  factory  was  used  to  weave  coarse  cotton 
cloth,  and  had  evidently  been  worked  by  water 
power.  Quite  forgotten  now,  unvisited,  it  was 
yet  a  picturesque  memorial  of  the  march,  and  I 
was  surprised  to  see  no  names  of  Visitors 
scrawled  on  the  walls  of  its  massive  old  foun 
dations. 

I  walked  into  Eatonton  by  a  long  and  pictur 
esque  wooden  bridge  over  the  crimson  river,  a 
strange  and  wonderful  structure  completely 
roofed,  and  shady  as  a  tunnel.  The  evening  sun 
blazed  on  the  old  wood  and  on  the  red  tide  and 
on  the  greenery  beyond,  making  the  scene  look 
like  a  colored  illustration  of  a  child's  tale. 


MAECHING  THEOUGH  GEOEGIA  149 

Eatonton,  where  Brer  Eabbit  and  Brer  Fox 
were  actually  born,  is  now  a  hustling  "city" 
with  bales  of  cotton  fluff  higglety-pigglety  down 
its  streets,  and  again  beautiful  bales  of  extra 
quality  in  the  windows  of  its  cotton  brokers. 
There  are  also  modern  mills  where  cotton  is 
being  spun.  The  business  men  on  the  streets 
talk  of  "spots"  and  "futures" — spot  cotton 
being  apparently  that  which  you  have  on  the 
spot  and  can  sell  now,  and  futures  being  crops 
yet  to  be  picked,  which,  presuming  on  kind 
Providence,  may  be  sold  and  re-sold  many  times 
before  being  grown.  What  is  said  of  Eatonton 
may  be  said  of  Milledgeville,  twenty  miles  fur 
ther  on.  It  is  a  cotton  town.  It  is  a  gracious  seat 
as  well,  with  a  scent  of  history  about  its  old 
buildings,  but  it  impresses  one  as  a  great  cotton 
center.  The  streets  of  Milledgeville  were  almost 
blocked  with  cotton  bales.  It  would  have  been 
easy  to  fight  a  battle  of  barricades  there.  The 
principal  church  looked  as  if  it  were  fortified 
with  cotton  bales,  and  it  would  have  been  pos 
sible  to  walk  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards  stepping 
on  the  tops  of  the  bales.  Bales  were  on  the  tidy 
lawns  of  shady  villas  or  stacked  on  the  veran 
das,  and  everywhere  the  hard-working  gins 
were  roaring  and  grinding  as  they  tore  out  the 
cottonseed  from  the  white  fluff  and  left  cotton 
that  could  be  spun.  Wisps  of  cotton  lint  blew 
about  all  over  the  streets,  and  cotton  was  entan 
gled  in  dogs7  fur  and  children's  hair.  In  the 


150      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

porches  of  Negro  cabins  it  was  heaped  high  till 
the  entrance  to  the  doorway  itself  was  blocked. 
Cotton  was  booming  at  Savannah  and  New 
Orleans,  and  despite  talk  of  the  weevil  destroy 
ing  the  pod,  and  of  bad  weather  and  bad  crops, 
it  was  clear  that  Georgia  was  very  prosperous. 
Men  and  women  discussed  the  price  of  cotton  aa 
they  might  horse  races  or  State-lottery  results 
or  raffles.  Everyone  wanted  room  to  store  his 
cotton  and  hold  it  till  the  maximum  price  was 
reached.  My  impression  of  Georgia  now  waa 
that  it  was  not  nearly  so  rich  in  live  stock  and 
in  food  as  it  had  been  in  the  time  of  Sherman. 
In  his  day  it  grew  its  own  food  and  was  the  sup 
ply  source  of  two  armies.  To-day  it  imports  the 
greater  part  of  its  food.  It  sells  its  cotton  and 
buys  food  from  the  more  agricultural  States  of 
the  South.  It  might  have  been  thought  to  be  a 
land  overflowing  with  fruit  and  honey  and  milk, 
but  fruit  and  honey  are  cheaper  in  New  York 
than  there,  and  there  is  no  margin  of  milk  to 
give  away.  Meat  is  scarce  and  dear.  There  is 
no  plenty  on  the  table  unless  it  be  of  sweet  po 
tatoes.  I  imagine  that  after  Sherman's  raid  the 
farmers  felt  discouraged,  and  decided  never  to 
be  in  a  position  to  feed  an  enemy  army  again. 
There  are  many  always  urging  the  Georgian  to 
grow  corn  and  raise  stock,  and  so  make  Georgia 
economically  independent,  but  the  farmer  al 
ways  meets  the  suggestion  with  the  statement 
that  cotton  gives  the  largest  return  on  any  given 


MARCHING  THBOUGH  GEORGIA  151 

outlay  and  takes  least  trouble.  That  is  true,  but 
it  is  largely  because  the  Negro  cotton  picker  is 
such  a  cheap  laboring  hand.  A  farm  laborer 
would  automatically  obtain  more  than  a  cotton 
picker.  The  hypnotic  effect  of  the  slave  past  is 
strong  and  binding  upon  the  Negroes.  Perhaps 
it  is  still  the  curse  of  Georgia.  There  are  still 
planters  who  drive  their  laborers  with  the  whip 
and  the  gun — though  the  shortage  of  labor  dur 
ing  the  war  caused  these  to  be  put  up.  It  is  not 
in  money  in  the  bank  that  one  must  reckon  true 
prosperity.  However,  in  this  material  way, 
Georgia  has  quite  recovered  from  the  Civil  War. 
But  she  has  lost  a  good  many  of  the  compensa 
tions  of  true  agriculture ;  cotton  is  so  commer 
cial  a  product  that  there  is  no  glamour  about  it, 
not  even  about  the  old  plantations,  unless  it  be 
that  of  the  patient  melancholy  of  the  cotton 
pickers. 


VI 

TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA 

I  PASSED  through  two  ancient  capitals  of 
Georgia,  first  Milledgeville,  and  then  Louisville. 
The  relationship  which  Milledgeville  bore  to 
Atlanta  reminded  me  of  the  relationship  of  the 
old  Cossack  capital  of  the  Don  country  to  the 
modern  industrial  wilderness  of  South  Russia 
called  Rostof-na-Donu.  But  business  is  busi 
ness,  and  there  is  only  business  in  this  land. 
Even  along  the  way  to  the  old  capital  it  is  al 
ways  so  many  miles  to  Goldstein's  on  the  mile- 
posts  instead  of  so  many  miles  to  Milledgeville. 
The  old  legislature  sat  at  Milledgeville,  but  it 
fled  at  the  approach  of  Sherman.  It  was  a  day 
of  great  astonishment  when  General  Slocum 
paused  in  his  supposed  march  upon  Augusta 
and  General  Howard  in  his  attack  on  Macon, 
and  one  came  south  from  Madison  while  the 
other  marched  nortE  from  McDonough.  There 
was  an  extraordinary  sauve  qui  pent.  Panic 
seized  the  politicians  and  the  rich  gentry  of  the 
place,  for  the  rumor  of  the  terrible  ways  of 
the  foragers  was  flying  ahead  of  the  Union 
Army.  Everyone  strove  to  carry  off  or  hide  his 
treasures.  They  must  have  had  terrible  priva- 

152 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          153 

tions  and  some  adventures  on  the  road  trying  to 
race  the  army,  and  they  would  have  done  bet 
ter  to  remain  to  face  the  music,  for  no  private 
effects  were  destroyed  in  this  city.  Similar 
scenes  were  enacted  as  at  Covington.  The 
darkies  made  a  great  day  of  jubilee,  and  hugged 
and  kissed  the  soldiers  who  had  set  them  free. 
The  cotton  was  burned  and  made  a  great  flare — 
seventeen  hundred  bales  of  it  even  in  those  days. 
The  depots,  magazines,  arsenals,  and  factories 
were  blown  up.  Governor  Brown  had  fled  with 
all  his  furniture,  and  Sherman  in  the  gover 
nor  's  house  slept  on  a  roll  of  army  blankets  on 
the  bare  floor. 

There  are  many  signs  of  ease  and  refinement 
in  the  spacious  streets  of  Milledgeville,  though 
it  has  increased  little  in  size  since  the  war.  It 
has  large  schools  for  the  training  of  cadets  and 
the  training  of  girls.  These  are  model  institu 
tions  and  are  very  valuable  in  Georgia.  The 
place,  however,  seemed  to  lack  the  cultural  sig 
nificance  it  ought  to  have.  But  it  is  true  that 
churches  and  Sunday  schools  were  full.  No 
shops  of  any  kind  were  open  on  Sundays ;  the 
people  had  forgotten  the  taste  of  alcoholic  drink 
and  were  ready  to  crusade  against  tobacco. 
They  are  not  given  to  lynching,  though  they 
allowed  some  wild  men  from  Atlanta  to  break 
open  their  jail  some  years  ago  and  take  away  a 
Jew  and  hang  him.  But  they  are  too  content. 
At  church  on  Sunday  morning  the  pastor  com- 


154      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

plained  that  while  all  were  willing  to  give 
money  to  God  none  were  willing  to  offer  them 
selves.  He  invited  any  who  were  ready  to  give 
themselves  unreservedly  to  God  to  step  forth, 
and  none  did.  And  it  was  an  eloquent  appeal  by 
a  capable  orator.  I  met  an  old  recluse  who  was 
at  the  back  of  the  church.  He  had  tried  to  give 
himself  to  God  but  was  now  living  at  the  asylum 
where  he  had  found  shelter,  being  otherwise 
without  means.  He  had  been  a  Baptist  minister 
at  a  church  near  Stone  Mountain,  but  rheuma 
tism  had  intervened  after  twenty  years'  work, 
and  he  could  no  longer  stoop  to  immerse  the  can 
didates  for  baptism.  He  was  an  Englishman 
who  had  listened  to  Carlyle's  and  Buskin's  lec 
tures,  and  he  talked  of  Dean  Farrar's  sermons 
and  the  good  deeds  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury. 
He  spoke  as  no  one  speaks  to-day,  good  old 
measured  Victorian  English.  He  was  a  touching 
type  of  the  despised  and  rejected.  He  loved 
talking  to  the  Negro  children  in  the  "colored" 
school  till  the  townsfolk  warned  him  against  it. 
His  books  form  the  nucleus  of  the  town  library, 
but  the  rats  have  gnawn  all  the  bindings  of  his 
"  Encyclopedia  Britannica, ' '  and  I  formed  the 

opinion  that  poor  E living  on  sufferance  in 

the  lunatic  asylum  was  probably  the  best  read 
man  in  Milledgeville. 

It  is  a  delightful  walk  to  Sandersville,  over 
Buffalo  Creek  and  over  many  streams  crossed 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          155 

by  the  most  fragile  of  bridges  apparently  never 
properly  rebuilt  since  Wheeler's  cavalry  de 
stroyed  them  in  the  face  of  the  oncoming  army. 
Georgia  used  to  have  many  excellent  bridges, 
but  it  never  really  hindered  the  Yankee  army  by 
destroying  them.  It  seems  rather  characteristic 
of  the  psychology  of  the  people  that  they  would 
not  replace  what  they  had  had  to  destroy.  Now 
at  the  foot  of  each  long  hill  down  which  the  au 
tomobiles  tear  is  a  trap  of  mere  planks  and  gapa 
which  chatters  and  indeed  roars  when  passed 
over.  Many  motorists  get  into  the  mud. 

Sandersville  is  a  busy  town  hung  in  gloomy 
bunting  which  no  one  has  had  time  to  take  down 
since  the  last  county  fair.  It  has  a  large,  dusty, 
sandy  square  with  a  clock  tower  in  the  middle. 
There  are  great  numbers  of  cars  and  lorries 
parked  around.  Cotton  bales,  old  and  new,  fresh 
and  decayed,  lie  on  every  street.  Huge  gins  are 
working,  and  Negroes  are  busy  shoveling  oily- 
looking  cottonseed  into  barns ;  cotton  fluff  is  all 
over  the  roadways  in  little  clots ;  every  man  is  in 
his  shirt;  the  soda  bars  do  a  great  trade  even 
in  November.  A  stranger  said  to  me  ' '  Come  and 
have  a  drink"  and  we  went  in  and  had  a  "cherry 
dope."  There  is  an  impressive-looking  public 
library,  much  larger  than  at  Milledgeville,  with 
high  frontal  columns  of  unadorned  old  bricka 
mortared  and  laid  in  diamond  fashion,  a  barred 
door,  and  an  entrance  so  deep  in  cotton  fluff, 
brickdust,  and  refuse  that  one  might  be  par- 


156      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

cloned  for  assuming  that  learning  was  not  now 
in  repute.  On  the  other  hand  there  is  a  fine,  well- 
kept  cemetery  with  large  mausoleums  for  the 
rich  and  tiny  stones  for  the  poor. 

Sandersville  was  the  scene  of  one  or  two  com 
bats  during  the  war.  But  when  it  is  borne  in 
mind  that  only  a  hundred  of  Sherman's  army 
died  from  all  causes  on  its  march  to  the  sea,  it 
will  be  understood  that  the  strife  was  not  seri 
ous.  Sherman  has  been  called  a  Prussian,  and 
he  certainly  possessed  military  genius  and  un 
derstood  soldiering  as  a  mental  science,  but  he 
always  tried  to  save  his  men.  He  wished  to  win 
victories  with  the  smallest  possible  loss  of  men, 
and  he  thought  out  his  unorthodox  plans  of  cam 
paign  with  that  in  view.  He  could  have  lost  half 
his  army  on  this  adventurous  march  to  the  sea. 
It  was  a  most  daring  exploit,  and  if  it  had  failed 
the  whole  responsibility  would  have  been  laid  at 
Sherman's  door.  But  Sherman  had  thought  the 
matter  out,  and  he  completely  deceived  his 
enemy.  Once  more  after  Milledgeville  Slocum  is 
seen  to  be  threatening  Augusta  in  the  north  and 
Howard  is  striking  south.  The  cavalry  is  driv 
ing  the  enemy  ahead  and  plunges  northward  to 
Louisville  and  Waynesboro,  well  on  the  way  to 
Augusta.  The  enemy  evacuates  the  central  re 
gions  of  Georgia,  and  Sherman 's  infantry  moves 
through  unscathed.  Foraging  has  become  or 
ganized  and  systematic.  The  wagons  amount  to 
many  thousands,  and  it  is  curious  that  the  pop- 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          157 

illation  did  not  destroy  all  vehicles  and  so  pre 
vent  the  army  from  carrying  away  so  much.  The 
doubt  which  General  Sherman  expressed  at  the 
beginning  of  the  march  that  supplies  might 
prove  inadequate  has  entirely  vanished,  and  the 
army  has  a  crowd  of  Negro  camp  followers  al 
most  as  big  as  itself.  These  eventually  became 
a  great  hindrance,  but  they  were  evidently  en 
couraged  to  join  themselves  to  the  soldiers  in 
the  Milledgeville  and  Sandersville  district.  They 
proved  invaluable  helps  in  the  seeking  out  of 
hidden  treasure  and  the  pillaging  of  farm 
houses.  They  knew  the  likely  spots  where  valu 
ables  would  be  buried,  and  the  soldiers  knew 
how  to  worm  out  secrets  even  from  the  most 
faithful  black  servants  on  the  big  estates.  One 
reason  why  Georgia  burns  and  hangs  more 
Negroes  than  any  other  State  is  probably  be 
cause  of  the  bitterness  caused  by  the  unstinted 
foraging  and  the  "  setting  of  the  niggers  against 
us "  as  they  say. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  seeds  of  future  hate  are 
always  sown  in  present  wars,  and  "  Sherman  rs 
bummers ' '  in  their  quest  of  spoil  took  little  heed 
of  any  future  reckoning.  The  Negroes  led  the 
soldiers  even  to  the  deepest  recesses  of  swamps 
or  forests,  and  showed  the  hollow  tree  or  cave 
or  hole  where  lay  deposited  the  precious  family 
plate  and  jewelry  and  money  and  even  clothing. 
It  was  common  to  take  from  the  planter  not  only 
hams,  flour,  meal,  yams,  sorghum  molasses,  but 


158      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

above  all  things  turkeys,  so  rare  to-day  along 
the  line  of  Sherman 's  march — 

How  the  turkeys  gobbled  which  our  commissaries  found, 
How  the  sweet  potatoes  even  started  from  the  ground, 
When  we  were  marching  thro'  Georgia! 

But  the  bummer  did  not  stick  at  these.  He 
would  borrow  grandfather's  dress  coat  and  hat 
surviving  from  the  old  colonial  days,  and  his 
mate  would  array  himself  in  grandmother's  fin 
ery,  and  so  attired  would  drive  their  wagon  back 
to  camp,  hailed  by  the  jests  of  the  whole  army; 
and  if  they  met  an  officer  on  the  way  they  would 
cry  out  mirthfully  the  text  of  the  army  order — 
The  army  will  forage  liberally  on  the  country. 

It  is  said  that  no  forager  would  ever  sell  any 
of  his  loot,  that  indeed  it  was  a  point  of  honor 
not  to  sell.  The  veterans  of  the  North  must 
therefore  preserve  many  interesting  mementoes 
of  the  South.  Both  officers  and  men  took  many 
tokens.  There  used  to  be  an  amusing  euphemism 
current  in  Sherman's  army:  it  was — "A  South 
ern  lady  gave  me  that  for  saving  her  house  from 
being  burned" — and  if  anyone  said,  " That's  a 
nice  gold  watch;  where  did  you  get  it?"  the  sol 
dier  replied,  "Oh,  a  Southern  lady  gave  it  to 
me,"  etc. 

The  army  made  camp  by  three  o'clock  every 
day,  and  it  was  after  three  that  most  of  the  un 
authorized  foraging  expeditions  took  place. 
They  were  gay  afternoons  spent  in  singing  and 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          159 

gambling,  athletics  and  cock  fighting.  The 
South  was  found  to  be  possessed  of  a  wonder 
ful  race  of  fighting  cocks.  The  enthusiasts  of 
the  sport  rushed  from  farm  yard  to  farm  yard 
for  astonished  chanticleer,  and  having  captured 
him  fed  him  well  and  brought  him  up  to  a  more 
martial  type  of  life  than  that  which  in  domesti 
cated  bliss  he  had  enjoyed  with  his  hens.  Every 
company  had  its  cock  fighting  tournament.  Each 
regiment,  each  brigade,  each  division,  and  in 
deed  each  corps,  had  its  champion.  The  winners 
of  many  bloody  frays  were  soon  nicknamed 
< 1 Bill  Sherman "  or  "Johnny  Logan, "  but  the 
losing  bird  which  began  to  fear  to  face  its  ad 
versary  would  be  hailed  as  Beauregard  or  Jeff 
Davis.  The  cock  fight  finals  were  of  as  great 
interest  as  the  combat  of  the  Beds  and  White 
Sox  to-day,  and  perhaps  more  real. 

Besides  game  cocks  each  regiment  had  a 
great  number  of  pets.  These  were  mostly  poor, 
homeless  creatures  on  which  the  soldier  had 
taken  pity;  dogs,  singing  birds,  kids,  who  fol 
lowed  with  the  army  and  had  the  army 's  tender 
ness  lavished  on  them. 

So  they  went,  marching  and  camping  by  old 
Louisville  and  the  broad  waters  Of  the  Ogeechee 
down  to  Millen.  The  old  farmers  say  what  an 
impressive  sight  it  was  to  watch  them  go  by  on 
the  Millen  road  with  seemingly  more  wagons 
than  men,  with  all  the  wagons  bulging  with  spoil 
and  drawn  by  well-fed  horses  and  mules,  with 


160      THE,  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

long  droves  of  cattle,  and  thousands  of  fren 
zied  Negroes  so  frantic  with  joy  that  they 
seemed  to  have  lost  their  heads  and  to  be  ex 
pecting  the  end  of  the  world. 

Davisboro  is  a  dust-swept  settlement  two 
sides  of  a  road  at  the  foot  of  a  Eill.  Doors  stand 
open,  and  the  general  stores  in  all  their  disor 
der  spread  their  wares.  At  one  end  of  the  little 
town  a  large  gin  is  hard  at  work  steaming  and 
blowing,  ravishing  cotton  seed  from  cotton  fluff, 
and  many  bales  are  waiting.  Louisville,  the  old 
capital,  is  a  dozen  miles  further  on  beyond  the 
woods  and  swamps  of  a  sparsely  settled  coun 
try.  It  is  now  "the  slowest  town  in  Georgia. M 
It  is,  however,  none  the  less  pleasant  for  that. 

There  are  many  old  houses,  and  in  the  midst 
of  the  way  stands  the  original  wooden  "Slave 
Market"  built  in  1758,  according  to  a  notice 
affixed,  but  now  used  as  a  fire  station.  In  the  old 
colonial  days  when  Louisville  was  the  capital, 
slaves  used  to  be  brought  there  in  large  batches 
on  market  days.  There  was  a  little  platform  on 
which  the  all-but-naked  victims  had  to  stand  and 
be  exhibited  and  auctioned.  As  I  sat  on  a  bench 
and  considered  the  building  a  young  townsman 
joined  himself  to  me  and  gave  me  a  gleeful  de 
scription  of  the  slaves — ' '  Their  front  teeth  were 
filed,  they  spoke  no  English ;  when  they  saw  our 
big  green  grasshoppers  they  ran  after  them  and 
caught  them  and  ate  them.  The  men  wore  loin 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          161 

cloths  and  the  women  cotton  chemises  halfway 
to  the  knee.  Lots  of  cows,  hogs,  mules,  and  nig 
gers  were  put  up  and  sold  as  cattle  in  a  lump. 
Animals,  that's  all  they  were  and  all  they  are 
now "  And  he  laughed  in  a  curious,  self- 
conscious  way. 

"It  is  strange  to  think  of  the  history  of 
them,"  said  I,  "from  the  African  wastes  to  the 
slave  ship,  from  the  slave  ship  to  the  harbors 
of  the  New  World,  then  to  these  market  places 
and  to  the  plantations,  taught  baby  English  and 
hymn-singing,  obtaining  the  Bible  as  an  only 
and  all-comprehending  book,  petted  and  fondled 
like  wonderful  strays  from  the  forest  in  many 
families,  tortured  in  others,  becoming  eventu* 
ally  a  bone  of  fierce  political  contention  though1 
innocent  themselves,  the  cause  of  a  great  war, 
and  then  released  in  that  war  and  given  the  full 
rights  of  white  American  citizens." 

The  young  townsman's  imagination  was  not 
touched  by  the  romance  of  the  Negro.  He  was 
full  of  the  wrong  done  to  the  white  South  by 
putting  it  under  the  dominance  of  a  free  Negro 
majority. 

"You  know  we  lynch  them  down  here,"  said 
he,  with  a  smile.  "They  want  social  equality, 
but  they  are  not  going  to  get  it.  The  nigger 
can't  progress  any  further." 

"Well,  there's  a  vast  difference  between  the 
Negro  of  1860  and  the  Negro  of  to-day,"  said  I. 
"Hundreds  of  universities  and  colleges  have 


162      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

arisen,  thousands  of  schools  and  Negro  organi 
zations  for  self-education.  The  Negro  has  gone 
a  long  way  since  in  yelling  crowds  he  followed 
the  banners  of  Sherman.  I  do  not  think  he  is 
going  to  stop  short,  and  I  wonder  where  he  is 
going  to  and  where  at  last  he  will  arrive. " 

I  passed  through  Eatonton,  the  birthplace  of 
Joel  Chandler  Harris,  on  my  way  to  the  sea.  He 
taught  us  much  about  the  Negro.  In  England 
Brer  Fox  and  Brer  Rabbit  have  become  as  cher 
ished  as  the  toys  of  the  nursery.  I  think  Uncle 
Remus  meant  as  much  to  us  as  "Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin. ' '  The  genial  point  of  view  and  the  genial 
books  do  as  much  to  help  humanity  as  the  strong 
and  bitter  ones.  Both  certainly  have  their  place. 
" Uncle  Tom's  Cabin "  stirred  people  out  of  a 
lazy  attitude  of  mind  toward  the  Negro  slaves, 
but  in  America  it  aggravated  a  bitterness  which 
no  other  book  has  been  able  to  allay.  The  very 
intensity  of  the  white  man's  thought  about  the 
Negro  bodes  ill  for  the  future.  The  White  men 
of  the  North  deliberately  have  made  the  effort 
to  rear  a  Negro  intelligentsia.  The  idealists  of 
the  North  said,  '  *  You  shall  go  on " ;  others  said, 
"No,  you  shall  stay  as  you  were";  the  clash  of 
the  two  wills  lit  up  racial  war,  but  the  Negro  has 
sided  with  the  idealists  who  sought  to  raise  him, 
with  the  Friends  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  hu 
manitarians  of  New  England. 

In  the  panic  of  Sherman's  approach  the 
planters  and  their  wives  told  their  slaves  that 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA  163 

the  Yanks  would  flog  them  and  burn  them  or 
put  them  in  the  front  of  the  battle,  and  drown 
the  women  and  children  in  the  Ogeechee  or  the 
Chattahoochee.  Many  believed  and  fled  with 
their  masters ;  others  hid  in  the  woods,  but  the 
rumor  of  salvation  was  on  the  lips  of  most.  The 
Southerner  has  a  saying,  "The  nigger  is  the 
greatest  union  in  the  country."  News  indeed 
travels  faster  among  slaves  and  servants  than 
among  employers  and  masters.  There  was  not 
much  hesitation  when  the  army  arrived.  The 
Negroes  saw  and  believed.  The  incredulous  were 
converted  and  the  scared  persuaded  out  of  their 
hiding  places.  All  with  one  accord  forgot  their 
fear  and  then  went  to  the  other  extreme ;  that  is, 
as  far  in  credulity  as  their  dull  minds  had 
lodged  in  incredulity.  The  arrival  of  the  victors 
gave  rise  to  the  most  extravagant  hopes.  The 
Negro  had  never  reasoned  about  anything  in  an 
informed  way.  He  knew  nothing  of  the  world 
except  the  simplicity  of  the  plantation.  He  had 
on  the  one  hand  slavery,  and  on  the  other  the 
vague  and  vast  idealism  of  Christian  hymns; 
the  melancholy  of  bondage  and  the  emotional 
ism  of  Evangelical  religion.  He  did  not  think  of 
New  York,  London,  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  of 
the  workingmen's  movement,  of  free  thought, 
of  political  economy,  but  only  of  "de  ole  plan 
tation,  ' '  and  then  ' l  de  ribber.  * '  From  drab  slav 
ery  he  looked  straight  to  Jordan  and  the  golden 
gates,  and  to  a  no-work,  easy-going  paradise 


164      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

happy  as  the  day  is  long,  with  God  as  Massa, 
and  Mary  and  the  Son  to  play  with.  There  were 
no  between  stages  to  which  to  aspire.  They  ex 
pected,  as  did  the  Puritan  churches  about  them, 
the  huge  combustion  of  the  Last  Bay,  and  they 
did  not  set  much  store  by  this  world.  Hence 
their  exalted  state  of  mind  following  Sherman's 
army.  They  were  ready  to  shout  Glory  when 
the  world  was  afire,  and  they  displayed  all  the 
emotion  which  should  have  been  saved  for  the 
coming  of  the  Lord. 

At  first  Sherman's  army  was  quite  pleased, 
and  encouraged  the  emotion  of  the  freed  men. 
But  it  got  to  be  too  much  for  the  Yankee  sol 
diers,  who  felt  at  last  that  the  Blacks  were  over 
doing  it  and  that  in  any  case  they  were  a  nui 
sance.  The  nearer  they  got  to  Savannah  the 
more  impatient  did  they  become.  At  last  they 
began  to  destroy  bridges  between  themselves 
and  the  Negroes,  and  put  rivers  between  them. 
Then,  after  leaving  Millen  for  the  pine  forests 
of  the  Savannah  shore,  they  deliberately  de 
stroyed  the  bridge  over  Ebenezer  Creek.  There 
was  a  wild  panic,  a  stampede,  and  many,  it  is 
said,  were  drowned  in  the  stream.  The  splen 
dor  of  the  army  went  by,  the  brass  bands, 
the  cheering  and  the  singing  of  the  soldiers 
and  the  standard  bearers  of  the  North  in  the 
midst  of  them,  the  wagons,  the  many  wagons 
laden  with  spoil,  and  the  droves  of  cattle.  But 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          165 

for  Georgia  and  the  Negro  there  set  in  the  twi 
light  of  ruin  and  disillusion. 

Eural  Georgia  is  not  very  much  better  off  to 
day  than  it  was  in  slavery  days.  The  large  tracts 
of  land  which  the  Blacks  thought  would  be  given 
them  they  neither  could  nor  would  farm.  They 
lacked  experience  and  initiative.  They  could 
be  too  easily  deceived  by  their  white  neighbors, 
and  were  too  subservient  to  their  erstwhile  mas 
ters  to  make  good  in  the  race  of  human  individ 
uals  striving  one  against  another. 

"No  Negroes  own  land  hereabout,7'  said  some 
Negro  renters  to  me  between  Shady  Dale  and 
Eatonton.  "They  did,  but  got  into  debt  and  lost 
it.  We  rent  a  thirty-acre  farm  and  pay  two  bales 
of  cotton  rent. ' 9  At  the  current  price  of  cotton, 
38  cents  a  pound,  that  amounted  to  380  dollars 
in  American  currency,  or  95  pounds  in  British 
currency,  but  the  tenants  paid  in  cotton,  and  as 
cotton  boomed  their  rents  advanced. 

It  seemed  to  be  everywhere  customary  to 
reckon  rent  in  cotton  bales,  and  it  is  easy  to  see 
what  an  economic  serf  the  Negro  can  become  un 
der  such  terms.  This  system,  known  as  "truck" 
in  England,  was  long  since  abolished,  but  its 
evils  were  so  notorious  that  truck  has  remained 
a  proverbial  expression  for  chicane — hence  the 
phrase  ' i  to  have  no  truck  with  it. ' '  The  Negro  is 
better  off  as  a  laborer  on  a  white  man's  planta 
tion  than  he  is  when  having  the  responsibility 


166      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

of  picking  a  crop  for  master  before  he  picks  one 
for  himself. 

There  are  many  features  of  life  on  the  mod 
ern  plantation,  be  it  of  sugar  or  cotton,  which 
suggest  slavery.  Virtual  slavery  is  called  peon 
age  and  many  examples  were  given  me  by 
Negroes.  It  is  arranged  in  some  places  that  the 
Negro  handles  as  little  money  as  possible.  In 
stead  of  money  he  has  credit  checks,  metal  or 
cardboard  disks,  which  he  can  use  at  the  general 
store  to  purchase  his  provisions.  He  is  kept  in 
debt  so  that  he  can  never  get  out,  and  so  lives 
with  a  halter  round  his  neck.  Especially  dur 
ing  the  war,  when  the  rumor  of  war  wages  was 
tempting  the  colored  labor  of  the  South  to  mi 
grate  North  in  huge  numbers,  efforts  were  made 
to  keep  the  Negro  without  the  means  of  stray 
ing  from  the  locality  where  the  labor  of  his 
hands  was  the  foundation  of  the  life  of  the  com 
munity.  Other  forms  of  peonage  prevalent  iri 
rural  parts  is  the  commuting  of  punishment  for 
forced  labor,  the  hiring  out  of  penal  labor  to 
companies  or  public  authorities.  This  resem 
bles  the  use  made  of  prisoners  during  the  re 
cent  world  war,  and  is  virtual  slavery. 

All  inroads  made  on  the  liberty  of  the  subject 
might  fittingly  be  classed  as  peonage — the  de 
nial  of  the  vote  to  those  legally  enfranchised, 
intimidation  by  lynch  law,  etc. 

I  talked  with  an  old  Negro  after  leaving  Louis 
ville  and  tramping  south  toward  Midville,  He 


TEAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          167 

was  lolling  in  rags  on  his  porch — very  near 
white.  His  father  had  been  his  black  mother's 
white  master.  He  remembered  Sherman's  pass 
ing  when  he  was  a  boy.  A  remarkably  intelli 
gent  and  tragic  face,  where  an  unhappy  white 
man  looked  out  on  the  misery  of  abject  poverty 
and  quasi-bondage.  Cotton  had  proved  bad  this 
year.  The  boll  weevil  had  entered  the  pod  early. 
There  were  but  three  or  four  bales  to  the  plow. 
He  did  not  know  how  he'd  foot  his  bills.  The 
rations  given  him  in  the  spring  had  become  ex 
hausted.  He  had  also  hoped  to  buy  clothes.  He 
said  the  traders  came  early  in  the  year  and  sup 
plied  him  with  all  sorts  of  things  on  the  strength 
of  a  large  cotton  crop,  and  he  pointed  to  a  toy 
bicycle  lying  upside  down  in  the  grass.  He  let 
his  little  boy  stride  it,  and  mother  thought  it  fine. 
Last  year  God  had  blessed  them  with  a  very 
fine  crop,  and  why  should  He  not  be  as  kind  this 
year?  So  he  signed  on  for  the  toy  bicycle  and 
for  a  gramophone  as  well.  Now  he  complained 
that  they  were  cutting  off  his  rations,  mother 
lay  ill  a-bed,  the  weather  was  getting  cold,  and 
they  had  no  clothes.  The  boss  was  coming  pres 
ently  to  turn  them  out  of  the  cabin  altogether, 
and  they  did  not  know  where  to  go.  Even  while 
we  were  talking  two  bullet-headed  young  fel 
lows,  clean-shaven,  frank,  and  surly,  came  up 
in  an  automobile,  stopped  short,  and  rated  the 
old  man  from  where  they  sat  in  the  car.  The 
cabin  and  the  little  cotton  plantation  belonged 


168      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

to  them  now,  and  the  old  fellow  was  reverting 
from  small  proprietor  to  be  laborer  on  a  planta 
tion,  and  to  be  laborer  was  little  better  than  to 
be  slave. 

"We  have  to  let  down  rope  ladders  to  our 
people  to  get  them  up  here, ' '  said  a  colored  dean 
of  a  university  to  me.  "We  live  in  such  abysses 
down  below,  and  there  is  no  regular  way  out  of 
the  pit." 

I  felt  as  I  was  marching  into  Georgia  as  if  I 
were  descending  the  rope  ladder.  What  a  con 
trast  there  was  between  the  bright,  radiant- 
faced  girls  at  Atlanta  studying  science  and  lan 
guages,  and  those  whom  I  was  meeting  now. 
There  was  a  regular  sequence  or  gradation  go 
ing  downward  to  filth  and  serfdom.  The  first 
bathed  twice  a  day,  and  spent  hours  working 
"  anti-kink "  not  only  into  their  hair  but  into 
their  souls  and  minds.  They  were  fresh  and  fit 
and  happy  as  morning  itself.  That  was  on  the 
Atlanta  heights.  I  stepped  down  to  the  world  of 
business  with  its  heavier,  gloomier  types,  the 
hard-faced,  skillful,  and  acquisitive  doctors,  the 
fire-delivering,  shadowy-minded  clergy,  the  ex 
cited  and  eager  yet  heavy-footed  politicians.  I 
took  the  road  and  met  the  troubled  landowners, 
pathetically  happy  to  exist,  though  drowning  in 
mortgage  and  debt;  from  them  I  passed  to  the 
farm  laborers,  with  the  jowl  of  the  savage, 
matted  hair,  bent  backs,  deformed  with  joyless 
toil,  exuding  poisonous  perspiration  and  foul 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          169 

odor,  herded  like  cattle  or  worse,  nearer  to  the 
beast  than  our  domestic  animals,  feared  by 
women  and  weak  men,  as  beasts  are  feared  when 
they  come  in  the  likeness  of  human  beings. 

There  were,  however,  steps  lower  still  in  the 
ladder  which  leads  downward  from  the  Atlanta 
hills.  Frequently  along  the  road  I  saw  men  in 
yellow-striped  overalls,  plodding  together, 
working  together,  overlooked  by  a  white  man 
with  a  gun,  and  as  they  walked  sounded  the  piti 
ful  clank-clank  of  the  chains.  It  is  rather  curi 
ous,  kandali  in  Siberia  are  an  atrocity,  but  in 
sections  of  the  United  States  they  are  quite 
natural. 

"We  do  not  keep  'em  in  jail,  but  make  'em 
work,"  says  the  white  man  knowingly.  "When 
there's  much  work  to  do  on  the  roads  we  soon 
find  the  labor."  At  Springfield  I  remarked  the 
terrible  state  of  disrepair  of  the  Highway  and 
public  buildings.  The  reason  was  that  instead 
of  setting  their  criminals  to  work  on  them  they 
handed  them  over  to  the  State  authorities.  Other 
towns  knew  better.  But  in  the  chain  gang  and 
the  striped  convict  so  easily  obtained  at  the 
courts  the  ex-slave  was  seen  at  his  worst,  and 
the  rope  ladder  stopped  short  before  touching 
bottom. 

There  is  not  much  to  endear  the  ordinary 
wooden  cabins  in  which  the  mass  of  America's 
black  peasantry  is  found  to  live.  They  are 
poorer  and  barer  than  the  worst  you  would  see 


170      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

in  Russia.  Ex-serf  lias  fared  better  than  ex- 
slave.  However,  one  detail  of  charm  on  this 
Georgian  way  was  the  putting  np  of  tiny  stars 
as  a  sign  of  boys  serving  in  the  army,  a  humble 
star  of  hope  and  glory  like  some  tiny  flower 
blossoming  out  of  season  in  the  wilds — one 
white  star  for  a  boy  in  the  army,  a  golden  one 
for  a  boy  who  had  died.  In  their  submerged 
way  the  Negroes  were  proud  of  having  helped 
in  the  war.  The  glory,  or  the  idea,  or  the  par 
rot  cry  of  "making  the  world  safe  for  democ 
racy"  had  penetrated  even  into  the  most  ob 
scure  abodes.  The  poor  Negro  had  discovered 
Europe  at  last,  and  was  especially  in  love  with 
one  nation — the  French.  The  South  generally 
had  not  been  very  eager  to  see  the  Negro  in 
the  war  and  has  not  reacted  sympathetically  to 
the  black  man's  war  glory. 

"There's  no  managing  the  neegahs  now, 
they's  got  so  biggety  since  the  war,"  said  a 
white  woman  at  Shadydale.  "Las'  year  we 
white  people  jus '  had  to  pick  the  cotton  usselves, 
men,  women,  and  chillen. ' '  She  told  me  she  did 
not  think  it  a  bit  nice  of  the  French  girls  to 
walk  out  with  Negro  soldiers,  and  then  told  a 
story  of  a  French  bride  brought  home  by  one 
of  the  white  boys.  She  tittered.  "Yes  .  .  .  she 
had  twins  soon  af  she  came,  and  would  you 
b'lieve  it,  they  were  neegahs.  Of  course  he  sent 
her  right  back."  The  French  intimacy  with  the 
Negro  soldiers  has  cooled  the  Southerner's 


TEAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          171 

regard  for  the  best-loved  nation  of  Europe.  It 
has  also  stirred  up  the  racial  fear  concerning 
Negroes  and  white  women.  Because  the  black 
soldier  was  a  favorite  of  the  white  girls  in 
France  it  is  thought  that  his  eye  roves  more 
readily  to  the  pure  womanhood  of  the  South. 

Lynching  seems  often  to  be  due  to  puritani 
cal  fervor,  and  is  compatible  with  a  type  of 
religiosity.  Mob  feeling  against  love  is  very  dan 
gerous.  A  pastor  kisses  a  girl  of  Eis  congrega 
tion,  a  deacon  happens  to  see  it,  and  his  career 
is  ended.  An  old  man  on  the  road  volunteered 
the  fact  that  he  had  never  "sinned"  with  a 
woman,  black  or  white,  his  whole  life.  Certainly 
there  is  a  high  standard  of  righteousness.  Fam 
ily  life  is  pure,  and  love-making  is  not  the  chief 
interest  in  life  as  in  some  European  countries. 
Men's  minds  are  more  on  their  business,  and 
women's  on  their  homes.  I  am  tempted  to  think 
that  if  the  white  race  which  inhabits  the  South 
were  French  or  Eussian  or  Polish  or  Greek 
there  would  be  no  lynchings.  The  great  num 
ber  of  mixed  relationships  would  beget  toler 
ance  for  inter-racial  attraction.  I  said  to  a 
young  Floridan  going  through  in  his  car — "I 
can  well  imagine  a  certain  type  of  European 
women  ogling  the  Negro,  making  eyes  at  him 
and  luring  him  to  his  destruction.  Have  you 
ever  come  across  such  a  type?"  He  answered 
"No,  and  if  there  were,  we'd  do  away  with  her, 
too." 


172      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Of  course  this  rigidly  moral  point  of  view 
falls  away  when  it  is  a  matter  of  the  white  man 
and  the  black  girl  or  the  mulatto.  The  morality 
of  the  Negro  woman  was  badly  undermined  in 
slavery  days,  when  slave  children  were  bred 
without  any  thought  of  sin  or  shame.  But 
though  the  moral  standard  has  been  low,  it  is 
nothing  like  so  low  as  it  was.  Pride  of  race  has 
been  born,  and  the  moral  purity  of  the  colored 
woman  as  a  whole  is  now  comparatively  higher. 
Certainly  even  in  the  country  districts,  where  the 
Negro  is  nearest  to  his  old  state  of  being  a  chat 
tel,  there  is  a  great  decrease  in  the  number  of 
half-bred  children.  The  solution  of  the  racial 
problem  by  ultimate  blending  of  color  is  not  one 
which  seems  likely  to  succeed  here  in  the  course 
of  nature.  Black  and  White  are  far  more  sepa 
rate  and  distinct  in  freedom  than  they  were  in 
slavery.  Even  the  black  mammy  is  dying  out. 
There  are  not  so  many  of  that  type  of  colored 
women.  The  white  mother,  moreover,  has  more 
scruple  against  giving  her  child  away  from  her 
own  breast.  The  Southern  woman  is  as  much 
against  promiscuous  relationships  with  Negro 
women  as  her  manfolk  is  against  the  Negro's 
roving  eyes.  One  woman  said,  "  You  can  under 
stand  the  fondness  of  our  young  men  for  some 
of  the  Negro  girls  when  as  babies  they  were 
suckled  by  a  Negro  woman."  There  is  much 
psychological  truth  in  that. 

During  these  weeks  on  the  roads  of  Georgia 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          173 

three  Negroes  were  burned  in  my  neighborhood, 
two  near  Savannah  for  supposed  complicity  in 
the  murder  of  a  deputy  sheriff,  and  a  mob  of 
about  a  thousand  white  men  took  pleasure  in  the 
auto-da-fe.  A  short  while  later  near  Macon  a 
Negro  was  accused  of  making  love  to  a  woman 
of  fifty  as  she  was  coming  home  from  church  one 
Sunday  evening.  Some  one  certainly  attacked 
her,  though  what  was  his  object  might  be  ques 
tionable.  The  accused  man  fled  for  his  life.  He 
was  captured  at  midnight  by  certain  well-known 
citizens  whose  names  were  published  in  the 
press.  The  sheriff  argued  with  a  crowd  of  about 
four  hundred  in  the  public  street  for  about  an 
hour  and  a  half,  and  then,  like  Pilate,  washed  his 
liands  of  the  matter  and  let  the  mob  have  its 
way.  Paul  Brooker,  the  Negro,  lay  on  the 
ground  maltreated,  but  living;  gasoline  was 
poured  over  him,  a  lighted  match  was  applied, 
and  he  was  burned  to  death.  TEis  was  not  in 
Catholic  Spain  in  the  days  of  the  Inquisition, 
but  in  religious  Georgia,  solid  for  Wilson  and 
the  League  of  Nations.  I  was  told  I  could  not 
understand  why  such  things  had  to  be  done.  No 
Englishman  and  no  Northerner  could  ever  pen 
etrate  the  secret  of  it.  That  seemed  to  put  me  in 
the  wrong  when  conversing  with  the  Southern 
people.  It  was  a  curious  fact,  however,  that  they 
also  for  their  part  took  no  pains  to  understand 
how  such  things  made  the  blood  boil  in  the  veins 
of  one  who  lived  elsewhere.  It  was  not  the  exe- 


174      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

cution  nor  the  crime  but  the  cruelty  that  seemed 
to  me  unforgivable.  I  could  understand  killing 
the  Negro,  but  I  could  not  and  would  not  care  to 
understand  the  state  of  mind  of  the  four  hun 
dred  who  enjoyed  his  torments. 

Burnings  and  hangings  and  mob  violence  of 
other  kinds  are  frequent  in  most  of  the  States 
of  the  South,  but  even  in  sucH  cases  where  the 
names  of  citizens  are  given  in  the  press  no  pros 
ecution  or  inquiry  seems  to  follow.  Thus  the 
great  flag  is  flouted,  and  it  is  possible  to  imagine 
the  cynical  mirth  with  which  the  ecstasy  of  the 
Negroes  following  the  Army  of  Liberation  in 
1864  might  be  compared  with  the  hilarity  of  the 
Southern  mob  In  1920  watching  the  ex-slave 
slowly  burning  to  death  on  their  accusation  and 
yelling  for  mercy  when  there  was  no  merciful 
ear  to  hear. 

I  suppose  nothing  begets  hate  so  readily  as 
cruelty.  That  is  why  in  all  wars  there  is  so 
much  mongering  of  atrocities :  one  side  tries  to 
find  out  all  the  cruelties  and  barbarities  com 
mitted  by  the  other  just  to  stir  up  its  own  adher 
ents.  So  in  the  Civil  War  all  the  brutalities  of 
the  slave  owners  were  made  known,  and  the 
Northern  soldier's  blood  boiled  because  of 
them.  Although  the  quarrel  is  now  healed,  there 
was,  at  the  time,  a  deep  hate  of  the  Southerners 
in  the  war.  It  was  not  only  a  martial  conflict  but 
personal  hatred  and  contempt.  What  was  done 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          175 

to  the  Blacks  was  aggravated  by  what  was  done 
to  the  white  prisoners.  The  North  discovered  a 
cruelty  and  callousness  in  the  South  which  must 
have  been  a  puzzle  to  those  who  reflected  that 
they  were  of  the  same  race.  For  Georgia  is  pre 
dominantly  English  by  extraction,  and  still 
proud,  as  I  found,  of  grandfathers  and  great 
grandfathers  born  in  the  old  country.  Some 
ascribe  the  change  of  temperament  to  the  hot 
sun  and  to  the  southern  latitude;  more,  to  the 
brutalizing  influences  of  slavery  itself. 

When  I  was  at  Millen,  which  once  in  the  glare 
of  a  burning  railroad  swarmed  with  Sherman's 
troopers,  I  went  out  to  the  old  Southern  battery 
at  Lawton  and  saw  the  mounds  and  the  fields 
where  the  pen  of  Northern  prisoners  was  kept. 
It  is  waving  with  grass  or  corn  to-day,  and  there 
is  a  beautiful  crystal  spring  in  the  midst  of 
serene,  untroubled  nature.  Here  the  prisoners 
were  concentrated  in  a  space  of  ground  three 
hundred  feet  square,  enclosed  in  a  stockade  and 
without  covering,  exposed  to  all  kinds  of 
weather.  When  any  escaped  they  were  chased 
with  bloodhounds.  Some  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  died  while  in  this  concentration  camp.  No 
wonder  a  soldier  of  the  time  wrote:  "It  fevered 
the  blood  of  our  brave  boys.  .  .  .  God  certainly 
will  visit  the  authors  of  all  this  crime  with  a  ter 
rible  judgment." 

Sherman's  soldiers  destroyed  every  hound 
they  could  find  in  Georgia  as  they  passed 


176      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

through — so  strongly  did  they  resent  the  bar 
barity  of  hunting  men  with  dogs.  For  the  South 
had  learned  to  hunt  runaway  slaves  with  blood 
hounds,  and  it  was  a  type  of  hunting  which  gave 
a  peculiar  satisfaction  to  the  lust  of  cruelty. 
What  they  learned  in  the  maltreatment  of  their 
slaves  they  could  put  into  practice  against  the 
prisoners  they  obtained.  There  again,  however, 
the  war  has  failed  to  bear  fruit;  for  the  hunt- 
Ing  of  Negroes  with  bloodhounds  has  become 
common  once  more. 

The  Northern  soldiers  did  not  become  gentler 
to  the  Southern  population  as  they  advanced 
further  into  the  depths  of  the  country.  Eather 
the  reverse.  They  would  have  been  even  more 
destructive  than  before  had  they  not  found  the 
country  to  be  more  and  more  sparsely  settled. 
The  march  from  Millen  to  Savannah  would  have 
resulted  in  the  harshest  treatment  of  the  peo 
ple,  but  happily  the  way  lay  through  forests 
and  through  the  uncultivated  wildernesses  of 
Nature  herself.  The  army  had  only  its  prison 
ers  to  vent  its  displeasure  upon,  and  they  cer 
tainly  did  not  pet  the  few  hundred  Confederate 
soldiers  and  " civilian  personages"  whom  they 
had  collected  in  bondage.  The  enemy  was  found 
to  have  mined  the  road  at  one  point.  An  officer 
of  the  Union  Army  had  his  leg  blown  off.  Eight- 
inch  shells  had  been  buried  in  the  sand  with  fric 
tion  matches  to  explode  them  when  trod  on. 
Sherman,  -was  very  angry,  and  called  it  murder, 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          177 

not  war,  in  a  way  which  reminds  one  of  the  in 
dignation  caused  when  in  the  late  war  the  Ger 
mans  started  anything  novel.  The  answer  to 
this  mining  of  the  road  was  to  make  the  rebel 
prisoners  march  ahead  of  the  column  in  close 
formation  so  as  to  explode  any  more  which 
might  be  laid  on  the  way.  They  were  greatly 
afraid,  and  begged  hard  to  be  let  off — much  to 
the  mirth  of  the  supposed  victims.  It  was  not 
until  nearing  one  of  the  forts  of  Savannah  that 
another  mine  exploded — the  hurt  done  to  the 
prisoners  remains  unrecorded. 

The  way  is  eastward  to  Sylvania  and  the 
Savannah  Eiver,  and  then  south  to  the  rice  fields 
and  the  harbor.  The  road  is  deep  in  sand,  and 
on  each  side  is  uncleared  country  with  high  yel 
low  reeds  below  and  lofty  pines  above.  Persim 
mons,  ripe  and  yellow,  grow  by  the  wayside,  a 
luscious  fruit,  good  when  just  rotten  and  full  of 
softness  and  sun  heat.  Large  bird-like  butter 
flies  gracefully  flitting  down  the  long  corridors 
between  the  pines,  and  myriads  of  jumping 
mantises  and  grasshoppers  suggest  that  it  is 
not  November.  The  golden  foliage  of  an  occa 
sional  beech  reminds  you  that  it  is.  The  woods 
are  deep  and  gloomy  and  melancholy.  A  poorer 
population  lives  by  pitch-boiling  and  lumbering. 
Every  pine  tree  is  bearded  with  lichen.  Moss 
hangs  in  long  festoons  from  the  branches.  The 
great  dark  trunks  are  here  and  there  silvered 


178      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

with  congealed  floods  of  sap.  Trenches  two 
inches  deep  have  been  cut  in  the  wood,  and  tin 
gutters  and  pots  have  been  fixed  up  to  collect 
the  resin.  Every  other  tree  has  a  brown  pot 
tied  to  it,  and  each  pot  is  half  full  of  the  pearly 
liquid  life  of  the  trees.  You  emerge  from  the 
forest  to  the  pretty  clearing  of  Kincom  with  a 
Lutheran  church  which  has  a  metal  swan  above 
the  spire — symbol  of  the  fact  that  the  first  con 
gregation,  the  one  that  built  the  church,  had 
come  across  the  water  from  Europe.  Six  miles 
from  Eincom  is  the  oldest  church  in  all  this  part 
of  Georgia,  the  Ebenezer  Chapel,  founded  by 
those  first  German  settlers  who  sailed  up  the 
Savannah  Eiver,  and  in  part  founded  the  colony 
of  Georgia.  It  also  is  a  church  of  the  swan.  The 
forest  is  very  dense,  and  Negroes  with  shotguns 
are  potting  at  wild  birds  from  the  highway. 
Wayside  cottages  and  churches  seem  almost 
overcome  with  the  tillandsia,  a  subtropical 
mossy  growth  that  seems  to  grow  downward 
rather  than  upward.  There  is  a  slight  clearing 
and  a  cemetery  in  the  depth  of  the  forest,  and 
the  hundreds  of  pines  and  cypresses  and  oaks 
about  it  are  weeping  with  this  hanging  moss. 
The  county  is  that  of  Effingham.  Springfield, 
the  capital,  without  electric  light,  deep  in  yel 
low  sanJ,  with  a  great  public  square  where  all 
the  many  trees  look  like  weeping  willows  be 
cause  of  this  gray-green  tillandsia  hair  trailing 
and  waving  ten  or  twenty  feet  to  a  tress,  is  an 


TRAMPING  TO  THE  SEA  179 

obscure  town.  Guideposts  for  Florida  begin  to 
appear,  and  heavy  touring  (cars  roll  past  on  the 
way  to  Miami  and  Palm  Beach.  There  are  some 
charming  wooden  churches — the  Negro  ones 
being  poorer,  looking  better  sacrifices  unto  God 
than  those  of  the  Whites.  But  above  the  counter 
in  the  chief  store  is  written 

In  God  we  trust, 
All  others  pay  cash. 

The  sound  of  the  axe  clashes  in  the  woods. 
There  are  many  fallen  trunks  on  which  it  is  pos 
sible  to  sit  down  and  rest.  Sea  mist  rolls  in  from 
the  Atlantic,  and  warm  airs  push  through  it, 
feeding  the  marvelous  tropical  mosses.  It's  a 
long  way  to  Savannah — distance  seems  to  be 
intensified  by  the  narrowness  of  the  gray  cor 
ridor  of  the  road  through  the  vast,  high  forest. 
There  rises  from  the  obstructed  earth  black  oak 
and  sterile  vine  and  palmettoes  like  ladies' 
hands  with  opened  fans.  The  surface  whence 
the  forest  grows  is  swampy,  old,  lichened, 
mossy,  springy.  It's  hard  to  find  solid  earth, 
so  many  branches  seem  to  be  overgrown  with 
verdure  and  moss.  In  the  heat  long  snakes  glide 
away  from  your  approach,  having  seen  you  be 
fore  you  saw  them.  And  rat,  rat,  ratf  the  red- 
polled  woodpeckers  in  their  tree-top  cities  call 
upon  one  another  and  seek  their  insect  lunch 
eons  and  then  flit  home  and  knock  again.  The 
white  people  speak  a  " nigger  brogue"  which  is 


180      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

almost  indistinguishable  from  Negro  talk,  and 
they  never  pronounce  an  r.  The  Negro  seems 
very  poor  and  illiterate  and  afraid.  "Hear 
comes  the  OLD  EELIABLE  FEIND  with  the 
LIFT  of  CHEIST"  says  a  notice  on  an  old 
wooden  church  of  colored  folk. 

I  am  overtaken  by  a  Negro  with  a  wagon  and 
twelve  bales  of  cotton,  and  though  he  seems  try- 
Ing  to  race  a  huge  touring  car  "heading  for 
Florida"  with  trunks  on  top  and  whole  family 
within,  he  slows  down  to  pick  me  up.  His  is  an 
enormous  lorry,  ponderous  and  ramshackle, 
shaking  the  bones  out  of  your  body  as  it  takes 
you  along.  The  Negro  boy  held  the  steering 
wheel  nonchalantly  with  one  hand  and  blun 
dered  along  at  top  speed.  After  ten  miles  of 
this  we  entered  one  of  the  vast  cotton  ware 
houses  outside  Savannah,  passed  the  gateman 
who  would  not  have  let  me  in  but  he  thought  I 
was  in  charge,  and  we  saw  where  a  hundred 
thousand  bales  were  being  housed  and  kept. 
Scores  of  Negroes  were  at  work  manipulating 
bales  on  trolley  trains  run  by  petrol  engines  all 
over  the  asphalted  way,  and  from  shed  to  shed. 

"Are  you  shipping  much  cotton  1"  I  asked  of 
a  white  man  who  was  giving  us  a  receipt  for  the 
cotton  brought  in,  while  a  dozen  husky  fellows 
were  unloading  the  wagon.  "Not  much,"  said 
he.  "Holding  for  better  prices,"  he  added,  and 
smiled  knowingly. 

Then  with  the  empty  wagon  we  rolled  off  for 


TBAMPING  TO  THE  SEA          181 

Savannah,  and  the  boy  driver  told  me  he  was 
going  to  work  his  passage  soon  on  a  ship  from 
Savannah  to  New  York.  "  We  don't  get  a  chance 
down  here." 

And  yet  how  ranch  better  off  was  he  with  hia 
wagon,  and  union  wages,  and  life  in  a  large  city 
than  the  poor  ex-slave,  on  the  land ! 

While  unlading,  it  had  become  dark.  But  an 
hour  more  through  the  forest  brought  us  to  the 
outlying  slums  of  Savannah,  and  then  to  the 
"red-light  district"  where  were  music  and 
dancing,  and  open  doors  and  windows,  and  the 
red  glow  of  the  lamp  luring  colored  youth  to 
lowest  pleasures ;  then  to  the  grandeur  and  spa 
ciousness  of  modern  Savannah,  and  the  white 
man's  civilization,  up  out  of  Georgia,  up  out  of 
the  pit,  through  the  veil  of  the  forest  and  of 
Nature  to  the  serene  heights  of  world  civiliza 
tion  once  more. 


VII 
AFTER  THE  WAR :  THE  VOTE 

THE  inarch  to  the  sea,  like  John  Brown's 
soul  marching  to  eternity,  was  a  moving  sym 
bol  of  the  faith  of  the  war.  Men  saw  in  it  the 
march  of  the  cause  of  humanity  as  a  whole. 
Sherman  offered  Savannah  as  a  Christmas  gift 
to  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  the  star  of  Bethle 
hem  shone  anew  over  a  ravaged  land  and  rav 
aged  hearts.  The  news  when  it  came  was  a  sig 
nal  for  great  popular  rejoicing  and  a  prophetic 
belief  in  the  end  of  the  war.  Four  months  after 
ward  there  was  a  general  capitulation  of  the 
South.  It  is  true  America's  most  innocent  and 
Christian  man  was  destroyed  by  hate — another 
Golgotha  day  in  history,  when  on  Good  Friday 
in  a  theatre  in  Washington  Lincoln  was 
assassinated — but  the  fight  had  been  fought 
and  the  victory  won.  It  became  possible  to  rat 
ify  the  abolition  of  slavery  by  the  re-establish 
ment  of  the  Union  and  the  common  consent  of 
all  the  States. 

"In  Sixty  Three  the  slaves  were  free;  In 
Sixty  Four  the  war  was  o'er,"  says  a  rhyme, 
but  in  truth  the  Negroes  were  not  free  in  the 
South  till  the  South  had  been  conquered  by  the 

182 


AFTER  THE  WAR:  THE  VOTE     183 

United  States,  and  the  war  was  not  o'er  till 
April,  1865.  It  was  on  the  24th  of  May,  1865, 
that  the  army  marched  past  the  White  House 
in  its  final  grand  review,  bearing  aloft  its  battle- 
riven  flags  festooned  with  flowers.  There  was 
glory  in  the  North ;  the  twilight  of  confusion  in 
the  South;  and  the  Negroes  were  free.  Peace 
came  once  more,  though  not  peace  in  men's 
hearts.  War  hate  still  bred  hate,  and  the  lust 
of  cruelty  called  into  being  its  monster  prog 
eny  of  revenge. 

The  fanatic  who  murdered  Lincoln  in  doing 
so  struck  the  whole  of  his  own  people.  The 
planters  who  burned  the  runaway  slaves,  the 
soldiers  who  during  the  war  put  to  death  the 
Negro  prisoners  who  fell  into  their  hands,  the 
actions  generally  of  the  embittered,  brought  the 
calamity  of  retaliatory  spite  not  only  upon 
themselves  but  upon  the  innocent  and  the  just 
and  the  kind.  A  policy  of  punishment  and  not 
of  reconciliation  ruled  at  Washington,  and  the 
white  South  suffered.  The  Negroes  and  the 
Negro  cause  suffered  also.  The  ex-slaves  were 
given  votes  and  put  on  an  electoral  equality 
with  white  men.  This  was  a  palpable  injus 
tice  and  indignity.  The  Negroes  in  1863  were 
not  prepared  in  mind  or  in  soul  or  in  knowledge 
for  the  exercise  of  the  franchise.  Neither  were 
they  gifted  with  the  power  of  will  and  physi 
cal  strength  necessary  to  hold  the  suffrage 
when  it  was  given  them.  There  was  the  same 


184      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

exaltation  nationally  when  the  victory  was  won 
as  there  had  been  locally  when  Sherman 
marched  through,  and  the  same  disillusion  and 
the  same  destruction  of  bridges  was  to  take 
place  also.  Where  the  white  man  went  the  black 
man  could  not  follow.  For  a  brief  space  of 
time  the  ex-slave  dominated  the  white  South. 
The  black  vote  was  exploited  by  political  char 
latans  ;  Negroes  did  not  vote,  they  were  voted, 
and  then  a  way  was  made  out  of  injustice  to 
put  the  white  man  and  ex-master  of  slaves  in 
the  right  again.  For  wrong  though  the  SoutK 
had  been,  the  war  should  still  have  left  the  edu 
cated  white  man  in  authority  and  not  put  him 
under  the  heel  of  the  illiterate.  The  poor  slaves 
just  freed,  but  not  educated,  not  blown  upon  by 
the  winds  of  culture,  not  sunned  in  America's 
bright  moral  sun,  were  in  no  position  to  vote 
upon  America's  destiny  or  to  take  a  directing 
hand  in  her  affairs.  As  is  usual  after  a  war, 
the  victors  wanted  a  revolution  in  the  land 
where  they  had  won.  The  white  North  revenged 
itself  on  the  white  South.  But  a  black  revolu 
tion  was  a  thing  that  could  not  be.  Kacial  in 
stinct  came  to  the  help  of  the  Whites,  and 
through  general  tacit  understandings  and  or 
ganized  conspiracies  the  new  black  masters 
were  ousted  from  their  places.  Then  fear  of 
what  might  be,  and  once  more,  revenge  born 
of  the  brief  black  dominion,  went  as  far  the 
other  way  in  injustice.  Nigger  baiting  arose, 


AFTER  THE  WAE:  THE  VOTE     185 

mob  violence  took  the  place  of  the  justice  of  the 
courts.  The  central  authority  was  flouted,  first 
covertly  and  then  openly.  The  Negro  was  hus 
tled  back  to  peonage  and  servility,  and  one 
might  be  tempted  to  think  that  the  cause  for 
which  all  the  blood  of  the  Civil  War  had  been 
shed  was  lost.  It  would  have  been  lost  had  not 
slavery  become  a  complete  anachronism  in 
world  society.  The  yoke  could  not  be  reim- 
posed  upon  the  Negro's  neck.  His  freedom  has 
persisted,  it  has  grown. 

The  maximum  of  persecution  of  the  Negro  in 
recent  years  does  not  equal  the  misery  of  slav 
ery.  Even  if  all  the  lynchings  and  burnings 
and  humiliations  and  disabilities  be  put  to 
gether  they  do  not  add  up  to  one  year  of  servi 
tude.  Most  Negroes  understand  that.  They 
know  that  no  matter  what  may  be  the  vicissi 
tudes  they  pass  through  they  are  still  progres 
sing  to  an  ever  fuller  freedom. 

In  viewing  the  whole  situation  one  is  apt  to 
underestimate  the  unhappiness  of  slavery  and 
to  magnify  the  unhappiness  of  the  present  era 
of  freedom.  It  is  blessed  to  be  free.  Even  to  be 
the  worst  possible  peon  is  far  removed  from 
slavery.  The  great  significance  of  the  Emanci 
pation  is  that  the  Negro  slaves  were  set  free- 
free  for  anything  and  everything  in  the  wide 
world.  In  the  prison  house  of  a  national  insti 
tution  of  slavery  there  was  no  hope,  no  sense 
of  the  ultimate  possibilities  latent  in  a  man. 


186      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

But  with  freedom  every  baby  became  a  poten 
tial  Alexander. 

In  1863  a  new  life  began  to  germinate,  began 
to  have  promise.  Some  thought  that  it  must 
show  forth  at  once.  But  that  was  fallacious.  It 
was  bound  to  spend  a  long  time  underground 
before  the  first  modest  shoots  of  the  new  should 
appear.  Many  have  argued  that  the  Negro 
would  come  to  nothing  in  his  freedom,  and  even 
those  who  have  believed  in  his  destiny  have 
been  impatient.  Premature  greetings  have 
been  given  time  and  oft  to  new  Negro  culture 
and  responsibility.  The  only  criticism  made 
here  is  that  they  were  premature.  The  greatest 
of  these  was  the  suffrage. 

I  have  said  that  the  denial  of  the  Negro  his 
legitimate  vote  is  a  part  of  peonage,  and  I  have 
also  said  that  it  was  wrong  to  give  the  freed- 
inen  votes  at  once.  I  should  like  to  explain  how 
Negro  suffrage  stands  to-day. 

In  the  first  place,  it  was  wrong  to  enfranchise 
the  ex-slaves,  not  because  they  were  not  entitled 
to  votes,  but  because  they  were  not  ready  to  be 
Intrusted  with  votes.  In  1863  in  England  as  well 
as  in  America  the  world  could  be  saved  by  the 
ballot  box  alone.  It  was  a  rebellion  against  this 
belief  that  caused  Carlyle  to  fulminate  against 
" Nigger  Democracy."  In  talking  with  Dean 
Brawley  of  Morehouse  College  at  Atlanta,  I 
noticed  a  prejudice  against  Carlyle  which  is 
very  widespread  among  educated  colored  peo- 


AFTEE  THE  WAE:  THE  VOTE     187 

pie.  In  the  first  place  I  should  like  to  assure 
them  that  the  use  by  Carlyle  of  the  expression 
"nigger"  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  bru 
tal  and  contemptuous  sense  in  which  that  word 
is  used  in  America.  Thus  we  say  "working  like 
a  nigger,"  an  expression  derived  from  the  life 
of  the  slaves;  "nigger  diploma/'  a  contemptu 
ous  English  expression  'for  a  high  degree  such 
as  Doctor  of  Literature  or  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
thought  to  have  been  purchased  in  America  at 
a  Negro  university;  the  ten  little  nigger  boys, 
the  black  boys  who  come  <so  swiftly  to  bad 
ends  in  the  familiar  rhyme  of  our  childhood 
"Nigger"  is  in  England  a  playful  word  for  a 
Negro,  and  is  used  always  in  the  nursery.  It  is 
the  children's  word  for  a  black  man,  prefer 
ably  for  one  who  has  been  thoroughly  blacked. 
Carlyle  was  one  of  the  most  reverent  of  men, 
and  not  accustomed  to  speak  contemptuously 
of  God's  creatures.  But  he  was  contempt 
uous  of  the  suffrage.  To  him  and  to  Euskin  and 
to  many  another  it  seemefl  absurd  that  the 
voice  of  the  educated  man  and  the  illiterate 
should  have  the  same  value ;  that  the  many  who 
are  dull  and  ignorant  should  be  allowed  to  out 
vote  the  few  who  know.  The  enfranchisement 
of  the  freed  Negroes  furnished  Carlyle  with  an 
example  of  carrying  an  absurdity  to  its  logical 
conclusion. 

The  alternative  to  government  by  ballot  has, 
however,  proved  to  be  government  by  the  domi- 


188      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

nation  of  a  military  caste,  and  mankind  gener 
ally  in  our  time  has  shown  that  it  prefers  the 
former.  The  ballot  box  with  all  its  absurdity 
seems  nevertheless  our  only  means  of  carrying 
on  in  freedom.  It  would  be  wrong  to  grant  the 
suffrage  to  the  millions  of  savages  under  Brit 
ish  rule  in  Africa,  because  they  could  not  use 
it.  And  it  was  wrong  to  enfranchise  Negrodom 
in  America  with  a  stroke  of  the  pen  after  the 
Civil  War.  It  has  done  the  Negroes  more  harm 
than  good. 

To  have  such  a  grievance  as  to  be  legally  en 
franchised  and  yet  physically  denied  the  use  of 
the  vote  is,  of  course,  great  harm.  It  affects 
the  social  mind.  It  makes  bitterness  and  brews 
agitation.  To  be  conscripted  and  called  upon  to 
fight  for  the  country  when  this  grievance  is 
in  mind  has  aggravated  the  harm  already  done. 
"We  are  not  too  low  to  fight  the  foe,  but  we're 
too  low  to  share  in  the  spoil, ' '  as  the  story  goes. 
I  heard  a  Negro  comedian  indulging  in  funni- 
osities  at  a  colored  music  hall  win  great 
applause  by  a  chansonette : 

Cullud  folk  will  be  ready  to  fight 
When  cullud  folk  has  equal  right. 
I  a'nt  so  foolish  as  I  seem  to  be. 

And  it  is  a  reasonable  sentiment. 

The  fact  is,  Negrodom  has  to  a  great  extent 
qualified  to  vote.  Half  the  population  is  sunk 
in  economic  bondage  and  illiteracy,  but  the 


AFTEB  THE  WAR:  THE  VOTE     189 

other  half  has  more  than  average  capacity  for 
citizenship.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  Federal  authority  these  many  millions  re 
main  practically  without  voice  in  all  the  South 
ern  States.  Physical  force  is  exerted  to  keep 
them  from  the  ballot  box. 

The  Southerner  affects  to  believe  that  the 
educated  Negro  is  even  less  fitted  to  have  a 
vote  than  the  illiterate  sort.  But  that  is  because 
he  hates  to  see  the  Negro  rise.  He  will  tell  you 
that  in  certain  States  the  Negroes  outnumber 
the  Whites  by  ten  to  one.  But  that  is  a  charac 
teristic  misstatement.  It  is  hard  to  find  a  city 
where  the  black  vote  exceeds  the  white.  In 
the  last  census  the  blackest  cities  were  Bir 
mingham  and  Memphis,  where  the  Negroes 
proved  to  be  forty  per  cent,  of  the  population, 
while  in 

Richmond  it  was  37% 

Atlanta    34% 

Nashville   34% 

Washington    29% 

New  Orleans 27% 

And  there  are  only  two  States  where  the 
Negro  population  exceeds  that  of  the  White; 
namely,  Mississippi  and  South  Carolina,  where 
the  Negroes  were  57  per  cent,  and  55  per  cent, 
of  the  total  population. 

If,  as  seems  only  fair,  an  illiteracy  test  were 
made  legal  by  amendment  of  the  Constitution, 


190      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

white  voters  would  outnumber  black  by  a  large 
margin. 

As  for  having  anything  to  fear  from  the  edu 
cated  Negro  vote,  there  is  of  course  one  matter 
of  anxiety.  The  Negro  would  be  bound  to  fight 
for  social  justice,  and  violence  would  be  done 
to  racial  prejudice. 

The  South  is,  however,  determined  that  the 
Negro  shall  never  vote  again.  Year  by  year  the 
colored  people  as  a  whole  grow  in  intelligence, 
in  capacity,  and  in  the  number  of  its  intelli 
gentsia,  but  the  South  is  not  moved.  It  sees  no 
explosion  in  the  future,  and  makes  no  provision 
for  one — will  not,  till  the  explosion  comes. 

Eacial  fear,  no  doubt,  plays  a  large  part  in 
this  determination,  but  there  is  a  further  con 
sideration.  The  Solid  South  votes  Democratic 
to  a  man.  The  Negro,  if  he  had  a  chance,  would 
vote  as  solidly  Eepublican.  I  remember  being 
present  at  a  violent  quarrel  at  a  Negro  meeting 
in  New  Orleans — one  Negro,  though  he  had  not 
a  vote,  had  actually  called  himself  a  Democrat. 
A  remedying  of  the  defective  suffrage  would  be 
an  enormous  access  of  strength  to  the  Eepub 
lican  party.  For  this  reason  Democrats  exag 
gerate  their  racial  fear.  And  also  for  that  rea 
son  every  Eepublican  politician  who  gains 
power  is  bound  to  make  a  bid  to  break  the  solid 
South.  Senator  Lodge  himself  was  the  author 
of  a  " Force  Bill"  which  came  near  enactment 
some  years  ago,  and  it  would  have  placed  Fed- 


AFTER  THE  WAR:  THE  VOTE     191 

eral  soldiers  at  every  ballot  box  in  the  South, 
to  protect  black  voters. 

The  South  defies  anything  which  the  Federal 
Government  may  devise.  As  Senator  Lamar, 
of  Mississippi,  said  to  his  colleagues  in  the 
Senate : 

"But  there  is  one  issue  upon  which  the  South 
Is  solid,  and  upon  which  she  will  remain  solid— 
the  protection  of  her  civilization  from  subjec 
tion  to  an  ignorant  and  servile  race.  And 
neither  Federal  honors  nor  Federal  bayonets 
can  shake  that  solidity. " 

President  Wilson's  a'dministration  has  been 
one  which  was  dominated  by  Southern  Demo 
crats,  and  as  the  Southern  vote  has  been  be 
hind  him  and  them,  there  could  hardly  be  any 
help  given  to  the  Negroes.  The  Democratic 
failure  has  nevertheless  been  a  real  disappoint 
ment.  Wilson's  radical  idealism;  his  plunge  to 
the  root  of  trouble  wherever  trouble  was,  led 
many  to  believe  that  he  would  do  something  to 
remedy  the  pitiable  state  of  the  Negroes.  Some 
legal  palliative  would  come  with  a  better  grace 
from  Democrats  than  a  forceful  measure  en 
acted  over  their  heads  by  Republicans.  Per 
haps  with  the  downfall  of  the  Democratic  party 
and  the  coming  triumph  of  the  Republicans 
something  practical  will  be  done  during  the 
next  few  years  to  help  the  Negro.  The  main 
hope  of  color  must  lie  in  a  Republican  Presi 
dent  and  a  Republican  Senate  being  in  power 


192      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

together.  November,  1920,  and  its  elections  will 
be  as  fateful  for  the  Negro  as  for  the  world. 

Eoosevelt  gave  his  party  a  generous  lead 
when  he  received  Booker  T.  Washington  at  the 
"White  House,  and  I  heard  young  Colonel 
Koosevelt  one  evening,  with  his  father 's  nerve 
and  pluck,  promise  a  vast  Negro  audience  a 
"square  deal"  if  they  would  have  patience. 
That  square  deal  is  the  Negro's  right,  espe 
cially  in  the  matter  of  the  vote.  It  is  strange 
that  the  movement  for  the  " rights  of  man"  in 
augurated  practically  in  the  French  Kevolu- 
tion  should  have  stopped  short  about  1870,  and 
the  contrary  ideal  of  the  "  privilege  of  individ 
uals"  begun  to  progress.  As  Button  Griggs 
very  forcefully  put  it  in  his  address  to  the 
National  Baptist  Convention  at  Newark,  New 
Jersey : 

"In  1792  a  motion  was  carried  in  the  English. 
House  of  Commons  providing  for  the  gradual 
abolition  of  the  slave  traffic.  In  1794  the 
French  Convention  decreed  that  the  rights  of 
French  citizens  should  be  granted  to  all  slaves 
in  French  colonies.  In  1834  the  British  abol 
ished  slavery  entirely  within  their  dominions. 
In  1848  French  slaves  were  emancipated.  In 
1863  the  Dutch  set  their  slaves  free.  The  South, 
unmoved  by  world  thought,  clung  to  its  slaves, 
but  they  were  violently  torn  from  her  grasp  in 
the  Civil  War.  Under  the  impulse  of  the  doc 
trine  of  the  native  equality  of  all  men  the 


AFTER  THE  WAR:  THE  VOTE     193 

Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  forbidding  the  denial  of  the 
right  to  vote  because  of  race,  color,  or  previ 
ous  condition  of  servitude,  was  adopted  in  the 
year  1869.  In  the  year  1870,  bills  were  passed  by 
Congress  providing  fines  and  imprisonment  for 
anyone  who  even  tried  to  prevent  the  Negro 
from  voting  or  to  keep  his  vote  from  being 
counted. 

"But  all  of  the  forces  that  could  be  mar 
shaled  have  not,  up  to  the  present  time,  been 
able  to  move  our  nation  or  the  world  one  inch 
forward  in  a  straight  line  from  this  point.  The 
action  just  mentioned  stands  as  the  last  re 
corded  national  act  designed  to  incorporate  the 
Negro  race  in  the  governmental  structure  with 
out  reservations.  Further  efforts  were  made 
by  powerful  forces,  but  all  have  proved  to  be 
abortive.  In  1875  a  very  comprehensive  bill  in 
tended  to  make  the  Negroes  of  the  South 
secure  in  their  rights  passed  the  lower  house  of 
Congress  but  was  defeated  in  the  Senate.  Some 
years  later,  the  Lodge  Election  Bill,  having 
the  same  purpose,  passed  the  House  but  was 
defeated  in  the  Senate.  The  Republican  party's 
platform,  upon  which  President  Taft  was 
elected,  contained  an  unequivocal  declaration 
In  favor  of  enforcing  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment  in  letter  and  in  spirit,  but  no  legislation 
in  that  direction  was  attempted  during  his  term 
of  office. " 


194      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

To-day,  however,  a  world  war  and  the  great 
est  affirmation  of  the  rights  of  nations  if  not 
of  man,  has  been  made.  There  is  an  opportu 
nity  to  resume  the  interrupted  advance. 


vin 

IN  ALABAMA:  COLOR  AND  COLOE 
PREJUDICE 

I  MADE  an  expedition  into  Alabama  from 
Atlanta,  and  again  saw  something  of  that  State 
when  I  got  down  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  the 
matter  of  Negro  life  it  is  first  of  all  important 
because  of  Tuskegee  Institute,  which,  like  the 
college  at  Hampton,  is  sometimes  called  the 
Mecca  of  the  American  Negro.  It  was  founded 
by  Booker  T.  Washington,  and  is  the  visible 
expression  of  the  self-help  idea.  There,  as  at 
Hampton,  the  ex-slave  is  taught  to  do  some 
thing  as  the  end  of  his  schooling.  The  estab 
lishment  is  now  under  the  guidance  of  the  be 
loved  Dr.  Moton,  a  wise  and  genial  African 
giant  of  pure  Negro  extraction:  his  father  is 
said  to  have  been  a  prince  who  in  selling  his 
captives  was  himself  lured  on  to  a  slaver,  and 
suddenly  found  himself  in  the  position  of  his 
own  captive  enemies.  This  was  during  Civil 
War  time,  and  he  came  to  America  a  slave  but 
to  be  made  free.  As  a  boy  barely  able  to  sign 
his  name  young  Moton  first  appeared  at  Hamp 
ton,  and  the  authorities  were  at  first  doubtful 
about  accepting  him  as  a  student.  But  what 
they  would  have  missed!  Dr.  Moton  is  the 
very  best  type  of  Negro  teacher,  the  worthy 

195 


196      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

successor  of  Booker  Washington.  Tuskegee, 
besides  its  educational  work,  does  much  to  com 
bat  race  hatred,  and  keeps  public  opinion  in 
America  well  informed  on  the  lynchings  that 
take  place.  The  presence  of  the  institute  in  the 
backward  State  of  Alabama  is  very  important 
for  the  future  of  the  South. 

At  Birmingham,  Alabama,  I  was  presented  to 
a  very  charming  young  widow  who  had  been  left 
rather  rich,  a  well-educated  lady  of  leisure,  who 
lived  well  and  dressed  well,  and  was  possessed 
of  a  recognizable  American  chic.  I  met  her  in 
town,  and  then  in  response  to  an  invitation 
called  on  her  at  her  house.  She  was  certainly 
a  Negro  beauty,  and  I  have  no  doubt  was  highly 
desired  in  marriage.  There  was  a  clear  five 
thousand  a  year  besides  her  charms,  and  it  was 
impossible  not  to  feel  some  of  the  glamour  of 
that  fact — 

The  belle  of  the  season  is  wasting 
an  hour  upon  you. 

Mmmmmm  she  cooed  to  everything  I  said.  She 
was  shy  as  a  pedestal  without  its  statue;  her 
eyes  burned,  and  I  could  not  help  feeling  all 
the  atmosphere  of  " romance/'  If  she  had  been 
a  shade  lighter  in  complexion  any  white  man 
might  have  fallen  in  love  with  her. 

Her  children — or  was  it  the  children  of  one  of 
her  black  servants  ? — were  playing  with  a  family 
of  real  Negro  dolls,  not  "  nigger  dolls, "  the 
stove  black,  red-lipped  nigger  of  the  nursery, 


IN  ALABAMA  197 

but  colored  dolls,  after  Nature.  This  was  very 
charming,  and  I  should  have  liked  to  see  a  baby 
woolly  head  at  the  swelling  bosom  of  my  beau 
tiful  acquaintance.  She  would  have  made  a  de 
lightful  study  for  a  black  Madonna. 

To  have  their  own  dolls  is  one  of  the  new 
racial  triumphs  of  the  colored  people  in  Amer 
ica.  Formerly  they  had  to  put  up  with  the  pink 
and  white  darlings  with  yellow  hair  and  pale 
blue  eyes,  those  reflections  of  German  babies, 
which  have  hitherto  held  the  market  of  dolls. 
It  has  taken  the  Negroes  half  a  century  of  free 
dom  before  it  occurred  to  them  that  the  doll, 
being  the  promise  of  baby-to-be,  it  was  not 
entirely  good  for  morals,  and  for  black  racial 
pride,  that  their  little  girls  should  love  white 
dollies.  Perhaps  it  was  mooted  first  as  a  busi 
ness  proposition.  It  might  be  a  paying  enter 
prise  to  manufacture  real  colored  folk's  dolls, 
brown  dolls,  mulatto  dolls,  near  white  dolls, 
black  and  kinky  ones,  sad  or  pretty  ones.  The 
year  1920  sees  a  lively  doll  industry  in  prog 
ress.  It  is  believed  that  in  time  the  white  dolly 
will  become  a  rarity  in  the  Negro  home.  Whence 
children  may  learn  a  lesson:  Your  pet  doll 
would  not  perhaps  be  another  girl's  pet  doll. 

It  was  also  at  Southern  Brum  that,  calling  on 
Reverend  Williams,  I  happened  upon  this  sin 
gular  conversation : 

"Now,  isn't  it  absurd  for  us  to  have  white 
angels  1" 


198      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

"You  surely  would  not  like  them  black ?" 

"We  give  Sunday-school  cards  to  our  chil 
dren  with  white  angels  on  them.  It's  wrong." 

"Black  angels  would  be  ugly." 

"No  more  ugly  than  white." 

I  thought  the  whiteness  of  the  angels  was  as 
the  whiteness  of  white  light  which  contained  all 
color.  That,  however,  was  lost  on  the  rever 
end,  who  happened  to  be  a  realist. 

"Christ  himself  was  not  white.  He  would 
have  had  to  travel  in  a  Jim  Crow  car,"  said 
he.  "But  put  it  to  yourself:  isn't  it  absurd  for 
us  to  be  taught  that  the  good  are  all  white,  and 
that  sin  itself  is  black?" 

"It  does  seem  to  leave  syou  in  the  shade," 
said  I. 

"Expressions  such  as  'black  as  sin*  ought  to 
be  deleted  from  the  language.  One  might  as  well 
say  ' white  as  sin.'  " 

I  ransacked  my  brain  rapidly. 

"We  say  'pale  as  envy,'  "  said  I. 

"  'Black  spite,'  "  he  retorted.  "Why  should 
it  be  black?" 

I  could  not  say. 

"Then  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Garden,"  he 
went  on,  "are  always  shown  as  beautifully 
white  creatures,  whereas,  considering  the  cli 
mate,  they  may  well  have  been  as  dark-skinned 
as  any  Negro  couple  in  Alabama.  Babylon 
was  built  by  Negroes." 

"Would  you  have  Adam  and  Eve  painted 
black?" 


IN  ALABAMA  199 

"Why,  yes,  I  would.'' 

This  struck  me  as  rather  diverting,  but  it  was 
quite  serious.  Later,  in  New  York  one  night 
at  Liberty  Hall,  before  I  was  driven  out  as  a 
white  interloper,  I  heard  an  orator  say  to  an 
admiring  host  of  Negroes :  "Why,  I  ask  you,  is 
God  always  shown  as  white?  It  is  because  He 
is  the  white  man's  God.  It  is  the  God  of  our 
masters.  (Yes,  brothers,  that's  it.)  It's  the  God 
of  those  who  persecute  and  despise  the  colored 
people.  Brothers,  we've  got  to  knock  that  white 
God  down  and  put  up  a  black  God.  We've  got 
to  rewrite  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  from 
a  black  man's  point  of  view.  Our  theologians 
must  get  busy  on  a  black  God." 

This  was  what  we  Whites  call  clap  trap,  and 
irreverent  as  well.  But  it  seemed  to  take  well 
with  the  Harlem  brothers.  Once  more  a  lesson 

may  be  derived  for  older  children If  you 

make  God  in  your  own  image,  it  does  not  fol 
low  that  other  children  will  agree  that  it  is 
like 

It  reminded  me  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  sol 
diers  when  they  got  home  from  the  war  and 
took  a  good  look  at  their  own  womenkind ;  they 
thought  them  so  much  more  good  looking  than 
French  or  German  girls.  Girls  and  dolls,  angels 
and  Gods,  we  like  them  to  correspond  to  our 
own  complexion. 

Birmingham  at  night  glows  to  the  sky  with 
furnaces.  A  hundred  thousand  black  proletari 
ans  earn  their  living  on  coal  and  steel,  stirring 


200      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

up  soot  to  heaven.    Though  I  met  there  the 

charming  Mrs.  J ,  whom  I  have  mentioned, 

and  also  other  educated  Negroes,  it  is  not  to  be 
supposed  that  it  is  a  place  of  culture,  white  or 
black.  It  is  a  straggling  city  with  an  ugly,  mis 
shapen,  ill-balanced  interior  or  center  part  like 
a  table  spread  with  small  teacups  and  large 
jam  pots.     It  will  not  stand  comparison  with 
Atlanta  or  New  Orleans  or  Eichmond.  Strictly 
speaking,  it  is  not  a  city,  but  an  agglomeration 
of  industrialism.    Nevertheless,   the   factories 
which  surround  it  are  owned  by  companies  of 
vast  resources,  and  it  is  claimed  that  in  the  steel 
industry  there  are  some  of  the  most  extensive 
industrial  plants  in  the  world.  Business  is  little 
disturbed  by  strikes.    On  the  gates  of  the  vast 
factory  estates  is  written :  We  do  not  want  you 
unless  you  are  able  to  look  after  yourself.  Care 
less  men  are  always  liable  to  accident.    Some 
notices   declare    "Non-Union    Shops,"    others 
"Open  Shops/'  but  it  does  not  seem  to  matter 
much.  The  unions  have  little  power.  Wages  are 
high,  though  not  as  high  as  in  the  North,  but 
the  cost  of  living  is  very  much  less,  and  there  is 
a  lower  standard  of  respectability.    In  some 
cases  the  industrials  are  housed  on  the  factory 
grounds,  and  you  see  Negro  dwellings  which 
amount  to  industrial  barracks.  Every  gate  has 
Its  porter  or  civilian  sentry,  and  in  order  to 
reach  your  workingman  you  may  have  to  show 
what  your  business  is  with  him.  On  the  way  to 


IN  ALABAMA  201 

his  door  you  are  met  by  the  notice  that  tres 
passers  will  be  prosecuted. 

There  is  no  encouragement  to  loiterers,  but 
you  may  see  the  Negro  gangs  at  work,  organized 
squads  of  workers  hard  at  it,  with  Negro  fore 
men  or  white  foremen.  A  myriad-fold  Negro  in 
dustrialism  straggles  near  mines  and  furnaces, 
blacker  than  in  Nature.  The  coaly  black  Negro 
collier,  the  sooted  face  of  steel  worker  and  tar 
operative  are  curious  comments  on  whether  it 
is  good  to  be  Black  or  to  be  White.  Coke  prod 
ucts  flame  and  smoke  at  innumerable  pipes, 
while  locomotives  are  panting  and  steaming 
forward  and  back,  and  a  platoon  of  chimney 
stacks  belches  forth  dense  blackness,  which, 
enfolded  in  the  breeze,  wanders  over  the  heav 
ens  and  one's  eyes. 

I  strayed  in  at  the  doors  of  some  very  dirty 
Negro  houses.  Here  was  little  of  the  amour 
propre  of  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia.  Anti- 
kink  was  not  being  generally  applied,  and  aa 
far  as  the  little  ones  were  concerned,  mother's 
little  Alabama  coon  seemed  to  be  getting  a  little 
bit  too  much  for  mother.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
understand  the  disgust  of  people  in  the  North 
when  in  1917  and  1918  Negro  families  rolled  up 
in  their  thousands  from  the  South — the  real 
obscure,  fuzzy-wuzzy,  large-featured,  smelly 
Negro  of  submerged  Alabama.  The  sight  of 
them  was  responsible  for  much  of  the  feeling 
which  inspired  the  Northern  riots.  "We  know 


202      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

our  Northern  Negroes/'  they  said  in  the  North, 
"but  these  from  the  South  were  like  no  Negroes 
we  had  ever  seen. ' '  There  was  awakened  much 
prejudice  against  these  uncouth  Africans,  who 
seemed  so  near  to  the  savage  and  the  beast.  It 
was  natural,  perhaps.  But  high  wages  and  new 
hopes  and  ideals  quickly  improve  the  black  im 
migrant.  He  is  being  absorbed  into  the  gener 
ality  of  black  Negrodom,  in  its  established 
worthiness  and  respectability,  above  the  Mason- 
Dixon  line.  It  would  be  difficult  after  a  few 
years  to  pick  out  a  Southern  Negro  in  a  crowd 
in  New  York. 

The  little  black  children  in  the  suburbs  of  Bir 
mingham  were  alternately  very  confiding  and 
then  suddenly  scared  and  then  confiding  again 
as  I  tried  to  talk  to  them.  There  was  much  fear 
in  their  bodies.  They  seemed  if  anything  to  be 
blacker  than  their  parents,  and  I  volunteered 
the  opinion  that  a  good  deal  of  their  color  would 
come  off  in  a  course  of  hot  baths.  But  washing 
facilities  were  of  a  rudimentary  kind,  and  the 
passion  for  being  fit  and  fresh  could  not  readily 
be  developed. 

The  white  South  could  improve  its  Negroes 
Infinitely  if  it  cared  to  do  so.  On  the  whole, 
however,  it  does  not  wish  its  Negroes  to  rise 
and  seems  most  happy  when  they  can  readily 
be  identified  with  the  beasts  that  perish.  But 
if  it  thought  more  highly  of  the  Negro,  the 
Negro  would  rise, 


IN  ALABAMA  203 

I  visited  Professor  K in  his  three-storied 

house.  He  had  been  one  of  the  Negro  Four- 
Minute  Men  who  had  made  popular  addresses 
to  his  people  during  the  war  fervor,  inducing 
them  to  be  "patriotic"  and  subscribe  their  dol 
lars  to  various  funds.  He  said  he  was  deeply 
discouraged.  He  did  not  belong  to  Alabama 
and  would  much  rather  live  in  a  more  civilized 
part  of  the  world,  but  he  gave  his  life  for  the 
uplift  of  the  children.  He  was  doing  what  he 
could,  but  the  Whites  gave  no  co-operation.  In 
these  factory  areas  the  colored  children  outnum 
bered  the  Whites  five  to  one.  Teaching  was,  of 
course,  segregated ;  he  had  no  objection  to  that, 
but  very,  very  little  was  done  by  comparison 
for  the  black  children.  They  had  most  need  of 
blessing — but  they  shared  only  in  parsimony 
and  curses.  He  showed  me  his  school — a 
ramshackle  building  of  old,  faded  wood.  "Oh, 
but  our  teachers  have  enthusiasm,"  said  he. 
"They're  doing  a  work  of  God,  and  they  love 
it.  Yes,  sir." 

I  obtained  an  impression  which  I  think  is 
sound,  that  there  was  more  keenness  to  teach 
on  the  part  of  the  colored  people  of  Alabama 
than  on  the  part  of  the  Whites.  White  schools 
find  some  difficulty  in  obtaining  good  teachers; 
colored  schools  find  no  such  difficulty.  If  col 
ored  students  only  go  on  in  the  way  they  have 
begun,  there  is  quite  a  good  prospect  of  their 
obtaining  posts  to  teach  white  children  in  white 


204      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

schools — not  perhaps  soon  in  Alabama,  for  it 
is  strongly  prejudiced,  but  elsewhere  first,  and 
then  in  this  State.  To  start  off  with,  they  would 
be  excellent  with  young  children.  There  is  a 
broad  road  of  conquest  standing  open  there.  As 
Booker  T.  Washington  very  sagaciously  pointed 
out  to  his  people,  there  is  no  stronger  argument 
in  their  favor  than  personal  attainment. 

However,  looking  around  the  houses  of  the 
industrialized  masses  here,  one  can  only  be  ap 
palled  at  the  inadequacy  of  civilization.  There 
is  nothing  that  is  better  than  in  the  forlorn 
mining  villages  of  the  Eussian  Ural.  It  makes 
a  sort  of  Negro  little  better  than  a  nigger,  and 
it  is  surprising  that  he  does  not  run  amuck  more 
often  than  he  does. 

If  the  outlying  settlements  reminded  of  the 
Ural,  the  center  of  the  city  reminded  of  nothing 
better  than  Omsk.  Here  on  the  main  street,  at 
Eighteenth  Street,  is  a  very  "  jazzy "  corner, 
resplendent  with  five  times  too  much  light  at 
night,  vocal  with  noisy  music,  and  swarming 
with  Negroes  of  all  castes  and  colors.  By  day  it 
is  like  a  web  of  gregarious  larvae;  by  night  it 
is  the  entrance  to  wonderland.  Here  is  massed 
together  the  Negro  enterprise  of  the  city.  Most 
of  the  characters  of  Octavus  Eoy  Cohen's  clever 
Negro  stories  are  thought  to  be  derived  from 
this  corner — Mr.  Florian  Slappey,  Lawyer 
Evans  Chew,  and  the  rest.  Do  not  their  ways 
and  doings  divert  a  vast  number  of  readers  to 


IN  ALABAMA  205 

the  Saturday  Evening  Post?  I  may  have  met 
some  of  them.  I  cannot  say.  But  I  met  their 
like. 

The  chief  establishment  is  the  savings  bank 
building,  a  squat,  six-story  erection  in  red  brick. 
It  is  flanked  by  places  of  amusement,  but  in 
itself  it  is  an  ark  of  professionalism  and  learn 
ing.  It  is  a  hive  of  many  cells  or  cabinets,  and 
every  cabinet  has  its  special  occupant,  a  doctor 
here,  a  dentist  there,  a  lawyer  in  the  other, 
another  doctor,  a  professor,  an  agent,  and  so 
on.  You  may  meet  nearly  all  who  count  in  Bir 
mingham  Negrodom  here.  By  the  way,  the 
local  way  of  pronouncing  the  name  of  the  city 
is  Bumming  Ham ;  if  you  say  politely,  Birming 
ham,  pronouncing  with  lips  and  teeth  in  the 
front  part  of  the  mouth,  no  one  will  understand 
what  you  mean.  A  Negro  pastor  whirled  me 
round  to  the  hub  of  Bumming  Ham  in  his  brand- 
new  car.  He  had  lately  had  a  very  successful 
revival,  of  which  the  motor  was  an  outward  and 
visible  sign.  And  I  called  on  many  of  the  nota 
bles.  I  met  a  short,  scrubby  Negro  of  fifty,  whose 
complexion  seemed  to  have  been  drenched  in 
yellowness.  He  explained  this  by  the  statement 

that  the  blood  of  Senator  H flowed  in  his 

veins.  The  senator  had  taken  a  liberty  with 
his  mother,  who  for  her  part  was  thoroughly 
black.  He  thanked  the  senator,  since  probably 
he  had  given  him  some  brains;  his  mother 's 
side  of  the  family  was  unusually  hard-headed. 


206      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

lie  had  become  a  professor.  His  daughter  was 
a  remarkable  public  speaker,  and  as  Senator 
H—  -  was  an  orator,  he  used  to  tell  his  Sarah 

that  there  was  Senator  H coming  out  in  her. 

'  *  The  Negro  has  been  mixed  with  the  best  blood 
in  the  South, "  said  he;  "the  blood  of  the  mas 
ters,  the  English  aristocrats  who  came  first  to 
the  country. " 

I  did  not  think  there  was  much  in  that. 

"Are  mulattoes  increasing  or  decreasing  in 
numbers  ?"  I  asked. 

He  thought  they  were  increasing.  But  he  did 
not  deny  the  fact  that  Negro  children  tend  to 
revert  to  type.  When  two  mulattoes  marry,  the 
children  are  generally  darker  than  the  parents, 
and  often  real  Negro  types.  The  white  man's 
strain  is  thrown  out  rapidly. 

"How,  then,  is  it  that  mulattoes  and  near 
Whites  are  on  the  increase  1"  The  professor 
thought  for  one  reason  there  was  still  much 
illegitimacy,  and  for  another  the  Negro  race 
under  civilized  conditions  was  getting  a  little 
fairer  on  the  whole.  Some  of  the  mulatto  women 
were  extremely  beautiful,  and  consequently 
more  attractive  to  white  men.  The  white  women 
of  the  South  hated  the  mulatto  women  because 
they  took  their  husbands  away  from  them.  He 
thought  a  good  deal  of  race  hatred  was  fostered 
by  the  white  woman,  who  instinctively  hated  the 
other  race. 

"Did  you  ever  hear  of  a  union  between  a 


IN  ALABAMA  207 

Negro  woman  and  a  white  man  that  was  on 
other  than  an  animal  plane  ?"  I  asked  him. 

Professor  M knew  of  several  instances 

where  an  infatuation  for  a  Negro  woman  had 
inspired  a  white  man  to  make  good  in  life.  It 
was  generally  a  tragedy,  for  they  could  not 
marry,  and  they  were  subject  to  coarse  suspicion 
and  raillery  and  intrigue.  It  stood  in  the  way  of 
the  white  man  finding  a  white  bride,  and  of  the 
Negro  woman  finding  a  Negro  husband.  Where 
a  white  man  had  become  interested  in  a  Negro 
woman  it  was  not  good  for  the  health  of  a  Negro 
man  to  pretend  to  her  affections.  The  mob 
feeling  against  Negroes  was  so  readily  aroused 
that  it  was  the  easiest  thing  in  Alabama  for  a 
white  man  who  had  a  grudge  against  a  Negro 
to  " frame  up"  a  crime  or  a  scandal  and  make 
him  leave  the  neighborhood  or  remain  con 
stantly  in  danger  of  being  roughly  handled. 

Alabama  has  a  bad  record  for  lynching.  It 
is  about  fifth  in  the  list  of  bad  States.  I  under 
stood  that  lynching  was  on  the  increase.  The 
old  folk,  the  people  who  had  been  slave  owners, 
the  settled  inhabitants  of  places  like  Anniston 
and  Montgomery,  and  of  the  country,  knew  all 
the  family  history  of  their  "niggers'"  from  A 
to  Z,  and  what  they  might  do,  or  could  do,  and 
they  were  friendly,  compared  with  the  "new 
sort." 

The  poor  Whites  loved  to  be  in  mobs  and  feel 
in  mobs.  Over  their  meals  and  at  work  and  in 


208      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

the  trolley  cars  they  loved  to  talk  in  the  way 
of  the  mob.  Individually  they  don 't  understand 
the  Negro — they  are  afraid  of  him,  like  dogs 
that  will  only  attack  when  in  numbers.  They 
mostly  came  to  America  after  the  Civil  War 
and  the  Emancipation  found  the  Negroes  in  pos 
session  of  land  or  of  work  or  of  houses.  They 
had  their  grievances,  and  instead  of  visiting 
them  upon  God  or  the  Devil  or  Society  in  gen 
eral,  found  the  Negro  a  convenient  fetish  and 
visited  their  discontent  on  him.  It  soon  became 
a  habit,  then  it  became  a  sort  of  lust  and  brutal 
sport. 

The  older  and  more  solid  people  have  been 
much  annoyed  by  the  growth  of  this  brutality, 
and  something  definite  is  being  done  to  combat 
it  in  Alabama.  Committees  have  been  formed, 
or  were  being  formed  in  the  fall  of  1919,  in 
every  county  in  the  State,  half  white,  half  col 
ored,  to  inquire  into  racial  strife  and  see  what 
could  be  done  for  life  and  freedom. 

An  old  Negro  said  to  me :  "  We  had  two  clocks 
on  the  cabin  wall,  and  one  was  very  slow  and 
deliberate  and  always  seemed  to  say: 

"  'Take  yo'  time.   Take  yo'  time  I' 
' '  But  the  other  gabbled  to  us : 

"  'Get  together,  get  together,  get  together!' 
That's  what  we  got  to  do  to-day,  brothers — 
get  together." 

The  Negroes  are  fond  of  emphasizing  the 
Iriviality  of  color  differences.  They  reprove  the 


IN  ALABAMA  209 

white  man  playfully.  "  Why  get  so  excited  about 
difference  in  color?  We  believe  in  equality  of 
rights  for  all  men,"  I  heard  a  leader  say,  "for 
all  men  of  whatever  color — white,  black,  brown, 
or  yellow,  or  blue."  And  his  audience  laughed. 
*  *  Two  boys  go  into  a  shop ;  one  buys  a  red  toy, 
the  other  a  blue  toy — but  it  is  not  very  impor 
tant  which  color — the  toy's  the  same." 

But  of  course  color  prejudice  or  preference 
Is  not  such  a  haphazard  matter,  and  prejudice 
against  the  Negro  is  prejudice  against  more 
than  color.  The  toy,  so  to  speak,  is  different. 
It  may  be  as  good,  but  it  is  different.  The  body, 
and  especially  the  skull,  of  a  Negro  is  different 
from  that  of  the  white  man.  The  nervous  sys 
tem,  the  brain,  the  mind  and  soul,  are  different. 
I  heard  the  theory  put  forward  in  the  name  of 
Christian  Science  that  in  God's  perfect  plan 
there  were  no  Negroes.  Their  dark  skins  were 
other  men's  evil  thought  about  them.  All  men 
were  really  white,  and  the  outward  appearance 
of  their  skin  could  be  made  to  correspond  to  the 
white  idea  by  concentrated  true  thought  about 
them.  That  is  a  charitable  and  beautiful  faitk 
to  live  by.  But  what  of  the  new  line  of  Negroes 
who  are  proud  of  being  black,  who  abhor  pallor 
as  nausea?  There  are  many  Negroes  now  who 
have  a  religion  of  being  black.  The  new  gen 
eration  of  children  is  being  brought  up  to  glorify 
Negro  color.  It  is  told  of  the  princes  and  war 
riors  from  which  it  is  descended,  learns  with 


210      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

the  geography  of  the  United  States  the  geog 
raphy  of  Africa,  and  delights  in  the  cognomen 
—Afro-American.  The  color  issue  will  never 
be  settled  by  all  Negroes  becoming  Whites.  It 
seems  clear  also  that  it  cannot  be  solved  by  all 
men  becoming  mulattoes.  There  seems  to  re 
main  just  one  obvious  solution,  and  that  is  in 
distinct  and  parallel  development,  equality 
before  the  law,  and  mutual  understanding  and 
tolerance. 


IS 

THE  SOUTHERN  POINT  OF  VIEW 

Shoemaker:    No,  my  lord,  they  don't  hurt  you  there. 
Foppington:    I  tell  thee,  they  pinch  me  execrably. 
Shoemaker:    Well,  then,  my  lord,  if  those  shoes  pinch  you, 

I'll  be  d d. 

Foppington:    Why,  wilt  thou  undertake  to  persuade  me  I 

cannot  feel? 
Shoemaker:    Your  lordship  may  please  to  feel  what  you 

think  fit;  but  that  shoe  does  not  hurt  you. 
— ("A   Trip  to   Scarborough.") 

THE  Southern  point  of  view  can  be  gathered  to 
gether  in  a  very  short  chapter.  Its  expression 
has  so  crystallized  that  it  can  be  set  down  in  a 
series  of  paragraphs  and  phrases.  Whosoever 
doth  not  believe,  withont  doubt  he  shall  be 
damned  everlastingly.  Wherever  you  meet  a 
Southerner,  be  it  in  the  remotest  corner  of  the 
earth,  it  is  the  same  as  in  native  Alabama.  I 
was  talking  to  the  Mother  Superior  of  a  con 
vent  one  day  in  a  genial  English  countryside. 
Although  I  did  not  know  it,  she  derived  from 
Mississippi.  I  mentioned  the  subject  of  the 
Negro,  and  from  her  quiet  face,  meager  with 
fasting  and  pale  with  meditation,  there  flashed 
nevertheless  the  Southern  flame — like  lightning 
across  the  room. 

You  have  only  to  mention  the  Negro  sympa 
thetically  in  a  public  meeting  and  some  one  of 

211 


212      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Southern  extraction  will  be  found  opposing  to 
you  a  statement  of  the  Southern  creed.  Thus, 
after  speaking  one  morning  at  Carnegie  Hall, 
some  one  came  up  to  me  and  said  very  emphat 
ically:  If  you  had  lived  among  the  Negroes 
you  would  not  speak  of  them  as  you  do — the 
inevitable  Southerner. 
This  is  his  creed : 

1.  We  understand  the  niggers  and  they  like 
us.  When  they  go  North  they're  crazy  till  they 
get  back  to  us.  The  North  does  not  understand 
the  nigger,  pets  him  and  spoils  him,  and  at  last 
dislikes  him  more  than  any  Southerner. 

2.  We  have   occasionally  race   riots   in  the 
South,  but  they  are  generally  caused  by  Yan 
kees  who  have  come  South.    In  any  case  the 
worst  riots  in  recent  years  have  taken  place  in 
the   North — at   Washington,    right   under   the 
President's  nose,  and  at  Chicago. 

3.  Few  Northerners  or  Englishmen  under 
stand  or  can  understand  the  Negro  problem. 
Those  who  understand,  agree  with  us.    Those 
who  do  not  agree,  do  not  understand. 

4.  The  nigger  is  all  right  as  long  as  he  is  kept 
in  his  place.  You  must  make  him  keep  his  dis 
tance.   If  once  you  are  familiar  with  him,  you 
are  lost.  He  will  give  himself  such  airs  that  it 
will  be  impossible  to  get  on  with  him. 

5.  The  nigger  is  an  animal.  The  male  of  the 
species  we  generally  call  a  "buck  nigger. "  Like 
the  animals,  he  is  full  of  lust,  Like  the  animals, 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT     213 

also,  he  does  not  feel  pain.  When  he  is  burned 
it  is  not  the  same  as  a  white  man  burning.  Like 
the  animals,  he  has  no  soul  either  to  lose  or  to 
save,  and  Christianity  and  education  are  alike 
wasted  on  him.  The  polished  Negro  is  merely 
disgusting,  like  an  ape  in  evening  dress.  You 
clothe  him  and  dress  him  and  put  him  at  table, 
but  he's  an  animal  all  the  same  and  is  bound 
to  behave  like  one.  You  can't  trust  him. 

6.  Under  the  influence  of  alcohol  the  Negro 
becomes  a  wild  beast.   He  goes  out  of  control. 
No  fear  of  consequence  can  stop  him.   That  is 
why  some  of  the  Southern  States  have  been  so 
ardently  prohibitionist. 

7.  If  you  had  to  live  with  them  you'd  under 
stand  how  terrible  it  is. 

8.  The  nigger  is  a  liar.  He  will  say  anything 
to  your  face  to  please  you,  or  anything  he  thinks 
you  want  him  to  say.   He'll  tell  you  stories  of 
lynchings  that  would  make  you  think  we  lynched 
a  nigger  every  week,  instead  of  it's  being  the 
rarest  occurrence. 

9.  When  we  lynch  'em  it's  for  a  very  good 
reason — to  protect  our  white  women.   Ask  any 
of  your  English  or  Northern  friends,  who  pity 
the  Negro,  whether  they'd  be  willing  to  let  their 
daughters   marry   a   Negro.     It's    a   horrible 
thought.    But  that  is  what  the  Negro  is  always 
after — the  white  woman.  His  fancy  runs  to  her, 
and  if  it  were  not  for  the  terror  of  being  lynched 
we  should  never  be  able  to  leave  our  wives  and 


214      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

daughters  in  security.  The  E  in  the  middle  of 
the  Negro's  name  stands  for  his  favorite  pro 
clivity.  We  burn  'em  alive,  yes,  and  do  it  slow, 
because  killing's  too  good  for  them,  and  we  get 
just  so  mad  that  everyone  wants  to  be  there,  and 
have  his  part  in  putting  them  to  death.  In  the 
North  they  do  not  lynch  the  Negro,  but  if  one 
commits  a  crime  they  .blame  the  whole  Negro 
race.  In  the  South  we  find  the  guilty  man  and 
punish  him. 

10.  When  the  white  man  goes  to  the  Negro 
girl,  it's  different.  He  ought  to  be  ashamed  of 
himself,  but  there,  it's  human  nature,  and  you 
can't  be  too  stern  with  him. 

11.  The  white  man  is  master,  and  must  re 
main  master.   But  you  do  not  realize  how  pre 
carious  his  position  is,  outnumbered  as  he  is, 
ten  to  one,  in  many  districts.    If  the  niggers 
joined  hands  against  us  we  might  be  all  killed 
In  a  night. 

12.  They  have  votes.   By  the  greatest  injus 
tice  ever  committed  in  this  country,  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  United  States  was  amended  to  give 
these  people  votes  and  give  them  power  over  us. 
It  is  true  we  prevent  them  using  their  votes, 
and  override  the  Constitution  at  every  election. 
But  political  agitation  goes  on  all  the  time. 
Every  Negro  would  vote  Eepublican  if  he  had 
a  chance,  just  because  we  vote  Democrat.   The 
Eepublican  party  knows  that,  and  is  always  con 
spiring  to  restore  to  the  Negro  his  lost  power  of 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      215 

voting.   It  will  never  succeed,  but  you  can  see 
the  anxiety  it  causes  us. 

13.  As  for  education,  it's  bad  for  the  nigger 
almost  every  way,  and  every  new  educated  nig 
ger  makes  it  more  difficult  to  keep  'em  down. 
But  kept  down  they  must  be. 

14.  Justice?  Well,  you  ask  any  nigger  which 
he'd  prefer,  a  Southern  court  of  justice  and  a 
Southern  judge,  or  a  Northern  one.    He  would 
always  prefer  the  Southern  one,  because  in  the 
South  we  understand  him.  And  we're  very  fond 
of  them  and  they  of  us.  We  get  on  ver^  well 
together. 

Southern  belief  rarely  strays  out  of  this  co'di- 
fied  expression  of  thought.  Get  into  converse 
with  a  Southerner  on  the  subject  of  the  Negroes, 
and  you  will  almost  always  be  able  to  refer  his 
talk  to  1  or  6  or  10  or  some  other  paragraph 
of  the  foregoing.  It  is  sufficiently  pat  and  par 
rot-like  to  be  amusing  at  last.  The  Negro  him 
self  is  amused  and  pained  by  it.  It  amounts  to 
this:  The  Southerner  has  made  the  Negro  a 
pair  of  boots  and  he  says  they  fit  very  well. 
The  Negro  says  they  don't  fit.  But  the  South 
erner  says  he'll  risk  his  salvation  on  it — he 
made  the  boots,  and  he  knows  his  trade.  The 
Negro,  however,  has  to  wear  them. 

Perhaps  if  it  were  merely  opinion,  the  idle 
ness  of  the  spoken  word,  the  Southern  point  of 
view  would  merit  less  attention.  Talk  might  be 


216      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

discounted,  as  mere  talk  is  discounted  by  re 
sponsible  minds.  But  it  has  unfortunately  a 
remarkable  counterpart  in  action.  It  is  the  con 
comitant  of  mob  murder  and  torture.  It  is  ex 
pressed  not  only  in  narrow  and  bitter  phrase, 
but  in  actual  flesh  twisting;  not  only  in  the 
flames  of  fanaticism,  but  in  real  flames. 

Lynching  is  a  popular  sport  in  the  South.  It 
is  perhaps  popular  in  idea  all  over  the  world. 
Even  in  Great  Britain,  where  the  policeman  is 
on  a  sort  of  moral  pedestal,  and  is  paid  immense 
respect,  how  often  among  the  masses  does  one 
hear  the  sentiment  that  such  and  such  a  per 
son  should  be  put  against  a  wall  and  shot.  Even 
in  a  nation  that  has  such  a  phrase  as  "the 
majesty  of  the  law"  the  idea  of  taking  the  law 
into  one's  own  hands  is  generally  popular.  In 
Eussia,  samosudi,  as  they  are  called,  are  fre 
quent,  and  there  is  a  short  and  terrible  way 
with  pickpockets  when  the  crowd  finds  them  out. 
France's  passion  for  la  lanterne  does  not  need 
to  be  enlarged  upon. 

It  is  said  that  in  countries  where  the  laws  are 
badly  administered  and  the  police  held  in  little 
respect,  lynchings  are  the  more  frequent.  This 
is  so.  And  while  lynching  can  have  a  moral 
sanction  at  first,  it  may,  if  unchecked,  grow  to 
be  a  popular  sport,  a  means  of  " national"  holi 
day,  like  the  shows  of  Eome,  the  auto-da-fe's  of 
Spain,  bullfights,  and  boxing  competitions. 
When  sufficient  cause  for  a  lynching  is  lacking, 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      217 

cause  may  have  to  be  invented,  just  to  let  the 
folk  have  some  "fun."  In  the  United  States  to 
day  there  are  not  sufficient  crimes  committed 
by  the  Negroes  to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the 
crowd  for  lynchings.  So  inevitably  many  inno 
cent  black  men  are  sacrificed  just  for  sport's 
sake. 

Last  year  seventy-seven  Negroes  were  lynched 
in  America;  fourteen  of  them  were  burned 
alive.  Burning  appears  to  be  on  the  increase, 
and  is  an  obvious  indication  of  growing  mob 
lust.  This  form  of  brutality  has  long  ago  ceased 
in  the  Europe  from  which  perhaps  it  was  de 
rived.  Spaniards  burned  the  Indians.  Indians 
burned  the  settlers.  Settlers  burned  their  run 
away  slaves.  And  still  to-day  in  comparatively 
large  numbers  the  white  Southern  mob  burns 
its  Negro  victims.  It  has  its  historical  back 
ground.  The  thought  of  burning  supposed  de 
linquents  alive  is  common  in  Southern  minds. 
"Make  'em  die  slow"  is  even  a  watchword. 

The  Southern  half  of  the  United  States  is 
fond  of  saying  that  the  North  is  now  quite  as 
bad  in  its  treatment  of  the  Negro.  Happily,  that 
is  untrue.  Seventy-two  out  of  the  seventy-seven 
lynchings  occurred  south  of  the  Mason-Dixon 
line,  and  the  rest  occurred  in  the  Western 
States.  The  North  was  immune.  Unfortunately, 
this  good  record  was  marred  by  some  bad  race 
riots  in  Northern  cities. 

Of  all  the  States,  Georgia  had  the  worst  rec- 


218      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

ord  for  lynching.  During  last  year  she  lynched 
twenty-two  persons,  almost  twice  as  many  as 
the  next  worst,  Mississippi.  Two  of  these  were 
for  alleged  attacks  on  white  women.  The  rest 
were  for  a  variety  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors. 
Thus,  in  April,  a  soldier  was  beaten  to  death  at 
Blakely  for  wearing  his  uniform  too  long.  In 
May,  at  Warrenton,  Benny  Richards  was 
burned  to  death  for  murder.  In  the  first  week 
in  August  a  soldier  was  shot  for  refusing  to 
yield  the  road,  and  another  was  hanged  for  dis 
cussing  the  Chicago  race  riots.  At  Pope  City 
another  soldier  was  lynched  for  shooting.  In 
the  belief  that  the  Negroes  were  planning  a  ris 
ing,  Eli  Cooper  was  taken  at  Ocmulgee  and  pub 
licly  burned  at  the  stake.  On  September  10th, 
in  the  Georgian  city  of  Athens,  another  Negro, 
Obe  Cox,  was  burned  for  murder.  In  Americus, 
in  October,  Ernest  Glenwood  was  drowned 
as  a  propagandist.  On  October  5th,  Moses 
Martin  was  shot  for  incautious  remarks.  Next 
day,  at  Lincolnton,  one  Negro  was  shot  for  mis 
leading  the  mob,  and  two  others  were  burned 
alive  for  committing  murder.  Next  day  another 
was  shot  at  Macon  for  attempted  murder.  Two 
were  hanged  at  Buena  Vista  for  intimacy  with 
a  white  woman,  and  before  the  end  of  the  month 
three  more  met  their  end  from  the  mob  for 
shooting  and  manslaughter. 

As  far  as  Georgia  is  concerned,  this  record 
disposes  of  the  theory  that  lynching  only  takes 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      219 

place  when  white  women  have  been  attacked. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  commonest  motive  for 
lynching  of  Negroes  throughout  the  United 
States  has  been  shown  to  be  mob  condemnation, 
of  violence — not  of  lust.  By  far  the  greatest 
number  of  lynchings  are  for  supposed  murder. 
The  mob  lynches  the  Negro  as  a  man  shoots  his 
dog  when  the  latter  has  turned  on  him.  For 
merly,  attacks  on  women  provided  the  greater 
number  of  cases.  If  the  Negro  were  fool  enough 
ever  to  make  eyes  at  a  white  woman,  he  risked 
his  life.  Many  innocent  admirations  and  mis 
understandings  have  resulted  in  lynchings.  As 
for  rape,  the  Negro  who  commits  it  is  bound 
to  come  to  a  violent  end.  Very  few  escape 
lynching,  and  the  South  claims  that  whatever 
immunity  it  enjoys  from  Negro  sexual  crimes 
is  due  to  the  deterrent  of  lynch  law.  It  claims 
that  if  the  criminals  were  merely  dealt  with 
according  to  the  law,  sexual  crimes  would 
speedily  multiply. 

White  people  with  the  white-race  instinct  are 
generally  ready  to  condone  lynching  when  it  is 
proved  that  it  thus  acts  as  a  deterrent.  Per 
haps  they  are  right,  and  they  ought  not  to  put 
it  to  themselves  from  the  black  man's  point 
of  view.  But  there  is  the  other  point  of  view, 
and  there  is  the  collective  opinion  of  the  colored 
people  on  the  subject,  and  that  opinion  is  being 
organized  and  will  make  itself  felt.  It  is  worth 
attention  and  sympathy 


220      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Granted  tEat  the  black  man  is  the  nn3er  man 
as  far  as  tlie  Whites  are  concerned,  is  he  not 
entitled  to  some  protection  for  his  own  women  1 
One  of  these  Georgia  lynchings  which  occurred 
last  year  was  a  characteristic  affair.  It  occurred 
at  the  town  of  Milan.  Two  young  white  fellows 
tried  to  break  into  a  house  and  seize  two  colored 
girls  living  there  with  their  mother.  They  ran 
screaming  to  a  neighbor's  home.  The  Whites 
tore  down  a  door,  ripped  up  flooring,  fired  a 
gun,  and  made  a  great  disturbance.  One  old 
Negro  woman  was  so  frightened  she  jumped 
into  a  well,  and  a  worthy  Negro  grandfather  of 
seventy-two  years  came  out  with  a  shotgun 
and  fired  in  defence  of  the  women.  One  of  the 
white  men  fired  on  him.  The  Negro  fired  back 
and  killed  him.  The  other  white  man  fled.  Now, 
for  that  deed,  instead  of  being  honored  as  a 
brave  man,  the  Negro  was  seized  by  the  white 
mob  and  hanged  on  a  high  post,  and  his  old 
body  was  shot  to  pieces.  This  man  was  a  good 
and  quiet  citizen  who  went  to  chapel  every  Sun- 
Say,  and  had  performed  his  duty  at  peace  with 
God  and  man  for  a  lifetime.  The  man  who  led 
the  lynchers  was  a  "Christian"  preacher. 
Sworn  evidence  on  the  matter  was  taken,  but 
the  officers  of  the  law  in  the  county  refused  to 
act. 

This  lynching  was  by  no  means  exceptional 
in  its  character.  To  cite  an  exceptional  affair, 
one  might  well  take  the  happenings  in  Brooks 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT     221 

and  Lowndes  Counties,  Georgia,  in  May,  1918. 
Here  a  white  bully  with  a  pronounced  spite 
against  Negroes  had  been  in  court  and  paid 
the  fine  of  thirty  dollars  for  gambling  which 
had  been  pronounced  against  a  certain  colored 
man  called  Sidney  Johnson,  and  the  latter  had 
been  sent  to  his  estate  to  work  off  the  debt. 
This  is  an  example  of  the  abuse  of  the  law  for 
keeping  Negroes  still  in  a  state  of  slavery — a 
characteristic  example  of  peonage. 

Johnson  did  the  work  to  pay  off  the  fine,  but 
the  farmer  held  him  to  do  a  great  deal  more. 
Eventually  the  Negro  feigned  sickness  as  an. 
excuse  for  not  doing  any  more.  The  farmer 
then  came  to  his  house  and  flogged  him.  It  must 
be  supposed  this  roused  the  devil  in  Johnson; 
he  threatened  the  farmer,  and  he  paid  a  return 
visit  to  the  white  man's  house,  fired  on  him 
through  the  window,  killing  the  man  himself 
and  dangerously  wounding  his  wife.  At  once 
the  usual  lynching  committee  was  formed,  and 
for  a  whole  week  they  hunted  for  Johnson,  who 
had  gone  into  hiding.  During  that  time  they 
lynched  eleven  Negroes,  of  whom  one  was  a 
woman. 

The  white  farmer  had  given  cause  for  much 
hatred.  He  had  constantly  ill-treated  his  col 
ored  laborers.  On  one  occasion  he  had  flogged  a 
Negro  woman.  Her  husband  had  stood  up  for 
her,  and  he  had  him  arrested  and  sentenced  to 
a  term  of  penal  servitude  in  chains.  The  white 


222      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

mob  concluded  that  he  must  have  shot  the 
farmer  for  revenge,  and  they  accordingly 
lynched  him.  He  was  shot  to  death.  His  wife 
would  not  be  quieted,  but  kept  insisting  that  her 
poor  husband  had  been  innocent.  The  mob 
therefore  seized  her.  It  tied  her  upside  down 
by  her  ankles  to  a  tree,  poured  petrol  on  her 
clothing,  and  burned  her  to  death.  White  Amer 
ican  women  will  perhaps  take  note  that  this  col 
ored  sister  of  theirs  was  in  her  eighth  month 
with  child.  The  mob  around  her  was  not  angry 
or  insensate,  but  hysterical  with  brutal  pleasure. 
The  clothes  burned  off  her  body.  Her  child, 
prematurely  born,  was  kicked  to  and  fro  by 

the  mob  and  then Well,  that  is  perhaps 

sufficient.  There  are  many  details  of  this  crime 
which  cannot  be  set  down  in  print.  But  all  these 
facts  were  authenticated  and  submitted  to  the 
governor  of  the  State.  The  point  that  struck 
me  was  the  pleasure  which  was  taken  by  the 
mob  in  the  sufferings  which  it  was  causing.  It 
was  drunk  with  cruelty.  Here  was  little  idea 
of  a  deterrent.  Here  was  no  question  of  racial 
prudence.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  natural 
history  of  mankind,  it  put  those  white  denizens 
of  Georgia  on  a  lower  level  than  cannibals. 

It  was  America's  glorious  May,  when  she  was 
pouring  troops  into  Europe  and  winning  the 
war;  hundreds  of  thousands  of  Negroes  were 
dad  in  the  uniform  of  the  army  and  were  fight- 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      223 

ing  for  "  freedom  and  justice "  in  Europe.  The 
moral  eloquence  of  the  President  was  in  all 
men's  minds.  America  had  the  chance  to  take 
the  moral  leadership  of  the  world. 

But  away  back  in  Georgia  the  mob  pursued 
its  horrible  way.  At  length  it  found  the  orig 
inal  Johnson  who  had  committed  the  murder, 
and  he  defended  himself  to  the  last  in  a  house 
with  gun  and  revolver,  and  died  fighting.  Hia 
dead  body  was  dragged  at  the  back  of  a  motor 
car  through  the  district,  and  then  burned. 

The  facts  were  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  governor,  and  he  made  a  statement  de 
nouncing  mob  violence.  But  no  one  was  ever 
brought  to  justice,  though  the  names  of  the 
ringleaders  were  ascertained.  No  committee  of 
inquiry  was  sent  from  Washington.  In  fact, 
the  people  of  Georgia  were  allowed  thus  to 
smirch  the  glorious  flag  of  the  republic  and 
to  lower  the  opinion  of  America  in  every  cap 
ital  of  the  world;  for  the  facts  of  this  story 
have  been  printed  in  circular  form  and  distrib 
uted  widely.  It  is  undoubtedly  a  remarkable 
example  of  lynching. 

It  seems  rather  strange  that  lynching  crowds 
allow  themselves  to  be  photographed.  Men  and 
women  and  children  in  hundreds  are  to  be  seen 
in  horrible  pictures.  One  sees  the  summer  mob 
all  in  straw  hats,  the  men  without  coats  or  waist 
coats,  the  women  in  white  blouses,  all  eager, 


224      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

some  mirthful,  some  facetious.  You  can  upon 
occasion  buy  these  photographs  as  picture  post 
cards.  The  people  are  neither  ashamed  nor 
afraid. 

Northern  Negroes  go  down  to  investigate 
lynchings,  buy  these  photographs,  bring  them, 
back  to  safe  New  York,  and  then  print  them 
off  in  circulars  with  details  of  the  whole  affair. 
Southern  newspapers,  though  reticent,  cannot 
forego  giving  descriptions  of  lynchings,  every 
one  is  so  much  interested  in  them.  Newspaper 
reports  are  also  reprinted.  There  is  no  need  to 
resort  to  hearsay  in  telling  of  the  mob  murders 
of  the  South.  They  are  heavily  documented  and 
absolutely  authenticated.  The  United  States 
Government  cannot,  for  instance,  prosecute 
such  a  Negro  association  as  the  N.  A.  A.  C.  P. 
for  the  pamphlets  it  issues  on  lynchings,  be 
cause  it  does  no  more  than  publish  facts  which 
have  been  publicly  authenticated.  If  prose 
cuted,  worse  details  would  see  light.  There 
fore,  these  pamphlets  go  forth. 

The  first  thing  they  do  is  tell  the  colored 
people  as  a  whole  what  has  been  happening. 
The  Negroes  of  Alabama  and  Tennessee  hear 
what  has  been  happening  in  Georgia;  the  Ne 
groes  of  Florida  and  Louisiana  hear  what  has 
taken  place  in  Arkansas  and  Texas.  Above  all, 
the  educated  Northern  Negroes  know  of  it.  Ad 
vanced  papers  such  as  the  Crisis,  the  Chicago 
Defender,  and  the  Negro  Messenger  are  giving 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      225 

the  Negro  people  as  a  whole  a  new  conscious 
ness.  First  of  all  in  Christianity  in  the  days  of 
slavery  and  in  their  melancholy  plantation 
music  they  obtained  a  collective  race  conscious 
ness.  And  now,  through  persecution  on  the  one 
hand  and  newspapers  on  the  other  they  are 
strengthening  and  fulfilling  that  consciousness. 
Destiny  is  being  shaped  in  this  race,  and  white 
men  are  the  instruments  who  are  shaping  it. 
May  it  not  emerge  eventually  as  a  sword,  the 
sword  of  the  wrath  of  the  Lord. 

I  met  many  "Whites  who  boasted  of  having 
taken  part  in  a  lynching,  and  I  have  met  those 
who  possessed  gruesome  mementoes  in  the 
shape  of  charred  bones  and  gray,  dry,  Negro 
skin.  I  said  they  were  fools.  Actually  to  have 
the  signs  upon  them!  Truly  they  were  in  the 
state  of  mind  in  which  most  men  seem  to  be 
when  fate  is  going  to  overtake  them.  They  were 
proud  of  their  "  quick  way  with  niggers, "  they 
justified  it,  they  felt  the  wisdom  of  lynching 
could  never  be  disproved.  The  matter  to  them 
\vas  not  worth  arguing.  They  assumed  that  any 
one  who  wished  to  argue  the  point  must  have 
sympathy  with  the  "niggers,"  and  that  was 
enough  for  them.  It  never  occurred  to  them 
that  one  who  doubted  the  wisdom  of  lynching 
might  be  actuated  by  sympathy  or  at  least 
apprehensive  for  them. 

I  felt  sorry  for  the  white  women  of  the  South; 
there  will  some  day  be  a  terrible  reckoning 


226      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

against  them.  Their  honor  and  safety  are  being 
made  the  pretext  for  terrible  brutality  and  cru 
elty.  Bevenge,  when  it  gains  its  opportunity, 
will  therefore  wreak  itself  upon  the  white 
woman  most.  Because  in  the  name  of  the  white 
woman  they  justify  burning  Negroes  at  the 
stake  to-day,  white  women  may  be  burned  by 
black  mobs  by  and  by.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
almost  any  insurrection  of  Negroes  could  ulti 
mately  be  put  down  by  force,  and  that  it  would 
be  very  bad  for  the  Negroes  and  for  their  cause, 
but  before  it  could  be  put  down  what  might  hap 
pen?  And  should  it  synchronize  with  revolu 
tionary  disturbances  among  the  Whites  them 
selves,  or  with  a  foreign  war? 

I  do  not  believe  that  there  are  real  conspira 
cies  of  Negroes.  But  there  is  growing  disaffec 
tion.  The  colored  people  are  a  friendly,  easy 
going,  fond-to-foolish  folk  by  nature.  But  their 
affection  and  devotion  have  been  roughly  re 
fused.  It  has  almost  disappeared.  Now  we  have 
the  phenomenon  of  Negro  mothers  telling  their 
little  children  of  the  terrible  things  done  by 
the  white  folk,  and  every  Negro  child  is  learn 
ing  that  the  white  man  is  his  enemy.  Every 
lynching,  every  auto-da-fe  is  secreting  hate  and 
the  need  for  revenge  in  the  Negro  masses.  Be 
cause  the  Negroes  are  weak  and  helpless  and 
unorganized  to-day,  illiterate  often,  stupid  and 
unbalanced  often,  clownish  and  funny  and  un 
reliable,  white  folk  think  that  it  will  always  be 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      227 

so.  But  they  are  wrong.  While  the  industrial 
ized  masses  of  the  Whites  are  certainly  degener 
ating,  the  masses  of  the  Negroes  are  certainly 
rising.  Trouble  is  bound  to  arise  and  retribu 
tion  terrible.  What  the  lowbrows  of  the  South 
are  teaching  the  Negro  he  will  be  found  to  have 
learned,  and  as  Shylock  said  about  revenge — it 
will  go  hard  but  he  betters  the  instruction. 

It  may  be  thought  that  this  is  written  with 
too  much  emphasis,  and  that  this  statement  on 
the  lynchings  is  too  unmerciful  to  the  white 
South.  But  I  believe  it  is  absolutely  necessary. 
There  are  those  who  would  be  ready  to  do  again 
the  injustice  which  was  done  to  the  Whites  in 
the  South  after  the  Civil  War.  When  discus 
sing  these  matters  in  the  North  I  have  been  hor 
ror-struck  by  the  opinions  I  have  heard  ex 
pressed.  This  is  written  in  no  partisan  spirit, 
and  I  believe  those  who  would  rejoice  in  the 
destruction  or  punishment  of  the  Southern 
white  population  are  utterly  wrong  in  heart. 
Punishment  and  revenge  will  only  perpetuate 
the  strife.  But  an  eclair cissement,  a  flood  of 
daylight  on  these  matters,  a  thorough  shaking 
of  these  stupid  people  down  below  the  line — a 
warning  in  such  terrible  terms  as  I  have  made, 
might  save  Black  and  White  for  the  religion  of 
love  and  a  joy  in  God's  creatures. 

It  may  come  from  a  stranger,  a  complete  out 
sider,  with  more  force  than  from  an  American. 
I  have,  however,  found  a  Southerner  who  con- 


228      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

demned  Georgia,  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop, 
Benjamin  J.  Keiley,  who  gave  out  a  very  serious 
warning  in  Savannah  on  the  2nd  of  November 
of  last  year.  He  said : 

"It  is  hardly  necessary  to  state  that  I  am  a 
Southerner  .  .  .  I  warmly  love  the  South ;  and 
her  story,  her  traditions,  and  her  ideals  are  very 
dear  to  me  .  .  .  But  I  fully  recognize  the  abso 
lute  justice  of  one  charge  which  is  made  against 
her,  and  I  look  with  grave  apprehension  to  the 
future,  for  no  people  that  disregards  justice 
can  ever  have  the  blessing  of  God,  and  we  are 
guilty  of  great  injustice  to  the  Negro.  The 
Negro  was  brought  here  against  his  will;  he  is 
here  and  he  will  remain  here,  and  he  is  not 
treated  with  justice  by  us ;  nay,  I  will  say  that 
he  is  often  not  treated  with  ordinary  humanity. 

"Look  at  the  statistics  in  our  own  State. 
Georgia  stands  first  in  the  list  of  States  in  the 
matter  of  lynching.  Has  there  ever  been  a  man 
punished  in  this  State  for  lynching  a  Negro? 

"Lynching  is  murder,  nothing  else. 

"Besides,  is  it  not  the  fact  that  fair  and  im 
partial  justice  is  not  meted  out  to  white  and 
colored  men  alike?  The  courts  of  this  State 
either  set  the  example,  or  follow  the  example 
set  them,  and  they  make  a  great  distinction  be 
tween  the  white  and  the  black  criminal  brought 
before  them.  The  latter  as  a  rule  gets  the  full 
limit  of  the  law.  Do  you  ever  hear  of  a  street 
difficulty  in  which  a  Negro  and  a  white  man 
were  involved  which  was  brought  before  a 


THE  SOUTHERN  VIEWPOINT      229 

judge,  in  which,  no  matter  what  were  the  real 
facts  of  the  case,  the  Negro  did  not  get  the 
worst  of  it? 

1 1  Georgians  boast  of  being  a  Christian  people, 
and  this  year  they  are  putting  their  hands  into 
their  pockets  to  raise  millions  to  bring  the  light 
of  Christianity,  as  understood  by  them,  to  some 
less  favored  peoples  in  Europe. 

"I  would  like  to  know  if  it  is  entirely  com 
patible  with  Christian  morality  to  treat  the 
Negro  as  he  is  treated  here?  My  belief  is  that 
the  Negro  and  the  white  man  were  redeemed 
by  the  blood  of  Christ  shed  on  the  cross  of  Cal 
vary,  and  that  the  Christian  religion  absolutely 
condemns  injustice  to  anyone  and  forbids  the 
taking  of  life. 

"To  me  the  murder  of  a  Negro  is  as  much 
murder  as  the  killing  of  a  white  man,  and  in 
each  case  Christian  civilization  demands  that 
the  punishment  of  the  crime  should  rest  in  the 
hands  of  the  lawfully  constituted  authorities. 

"I  have  lived  to  see  in  Georgia  an  appeal 
made  to  the  highest  authority  in  the  State  for 
protection  of  the  lives  of  colored  men,  women, 
and  children,  answered  by  the  statement  that 
the  Negro  should  not  commit  crimes!  The 
people  of  Georgia  vest  in  certain  officials  the 
execution  of  justice.  Yet  no  lyncher  has  ever 
been  punished  here,  and  I  regret  to  state  that 
public  sentiment  seems  to  justify  the  conduct  of 
the  officials. 

"Only  a  short  time  ago  I  was  reading  the 


230      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

strange  news  of  the  race  riots  in  the  Northern 
and  Western  cities.  Thank  God,  we  have  had 
none  of  these  riots  in  the  South.  Do  you  know 
the  reason?  The  only  reason  is  the  forbearance 
of  the  Negro.  He  has  been  treated  with  gross 
injustice ;  he  has  not  retaliated.  In  all  these 
cases  gross  disregard  for  law  and  order  are 
either  the  cause  or  the  direct  consequence  of 
those  disturbances. 

"Are  there  not  numbers  of  honest,  law-abid 
ing  citizens  of  Georgia  who  know  that  I  am 
telling  God's  truth,  and  who  will  protest  against 
this  injustice  to  the  Negro?  Is  there  not  a  just 
and  fearless  man  on  the  bench  in  this  State  who 
will  have  the  courage  to  announce  that  there 
shall  be  no  difference  in  his  court  between  the 
white  man  and  the  colored  man? 

"Injustice  and  disregard  of  law  and  the  law 
ful  conduct  of  affairs  are  the  sure  forerunners 
of  anarchy  and  the  loss  of  our  liberty,  and  we 
are  drifting  in  that  direction. 

"The  Negro  will  not  stand  asking  for  justice 
from  Georgia  laws  or  Georgia  courts.  He  has 
been  patient,  and  I  hope  he  will  remain  so,  but 
he  well  knows  where  the  remedy  lies,  and  he 
will  very  soon  be  found  knocking  at  the  door  of 
the  Federal  Congress,  asking  protection.  And 
Congress  will  hear  him. 

"If  appeals  to  right,  justice,  to  Christian 
morality,  do  not  avail  to  put  a  stop  to  this  in 
justice  to  the  Negro  and  protect  him  against 


THE  SOUTHEEN  VIEWPOINT      231 

the  murderous  lynchers,  then  Georgia  will  see 
Federal  bayonets  giving  him  protection. " 

Such  a  voice  is  very  rare.  The  warning  is  the 
more  worth  heeding. 


EXODUS 

THE  Negro's  refrain,  "Let  My  People  Go," 
continues  to  have  a  strong  emotional  appeal. 
Though  devoted  to  the  Southland  in  an  intense, 
sentimental  way,  for  the  Negro  has  an  infinitely 
pathetic  love  of  home,  he  has  come  sorrowfully 
to  the  conclusion — he  must  go  away  from  here. 
It  is  strange,  because  homesickness  is  almost 
a  mania  with  the  Negro.  He  relates  himself  to 
the  white  master's  house  where  he  works,  to  the 
rude  cabin  where  his  family  live,  to  his  church, 
to  the  "home  niggers,"  in  an  extravagant  path 
ological  way  which  has  nothing  to  do  with  grati 
tude.  Perhaps  it  is  because  as  a  people  the 
slaves  were  uprooted  out  of  a  home  in  Africa, 
and  they  have  a  haunting  melancholy  in  the  hid 
den  depths  of  their  souls.  I  believe  their  child 
ish  idealization  of  heaven  in  their  hymns  is 
fundamentally  a  sort  of  homesickness.  The 
Negro  is  not  a  natural  nomad  or  vagrant  like 
the  Russian,  the  Jew,  the  Tartar.  He  must  have 
been  as  geographically  fixed  in  his  native  haunts 
in  Africa.  Judge,  then,  how  great  a  disturbance 

232 


EXODUS  233 

must  take  place  before  the  Negro  en  masse 
would  be  ready  to  emigrate.  Yet  so  it  is  to-day. 
With  consternation  in  their  aspect,  whole  fami 
lies,  whole  communities,  are  waiting — to  go 
North.  And  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them 
are  on  the  move.  Of  course  it  is  not  a  complete 
change  of  scene.  The  North  has  its  Negro 
masses  too.  One  rather  loses  sight  of  them 
among  the  Whites,  but  they  are  there.  And  they 
do  not  cease  to  invite  their  unhappy  brothers 
and  sisters  down  South  to  throw  up  everything 
and  come  North. 

While  it  is  commonly  said  that  the  Negro 
cannot  stand  the  colder  climate  of  the  North, 
there  is,  however,  not  much  evidence  to  that 
effect.  As  their  orators  are  proud  to  declaim — 
the  only  civilized  man  to  accompany  Peary  to 
the  actual  North  Pole  was  his  trusted  servant, 
Matt  Henson,  a  Negro.  To  some  delicate 
Negroes,  no  doubt,  a  severe  climate  would  be 
fatal,  but  that  is  true  for  Whites  as  well  as 
Negroes.  On  the  whole,  the  Northern  air  seema 
to  be  good  for  the  Negro  if  he  can  stand  it.  The 
Negroes  of  New  York  and  Chicago  and  Boston, 
and  the  Canadian  Negroes,  are  firmer  in  flesh 
and  in  will  than  those  who  live  in  the  South. 
And  they  are  certainly  more  energetic.  They 
yield  more  hope  for  the  race  as  a  whole  than  do 
the  others.  Perhaps  one  ought  to  discount  this 
fact  in  the  light  of  the  extra  prosperity  and  hap 
piness  of  the  Northern  Negroes,  There  is  noth- 


234      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

ing  that  will  undermine  the  constitution  more 
than  terror  and  nervous  depression.  Security 
is  the  real  Negro  ozone. 

There  has  been  during  the  last  three  years  a 
steady  migration  of  Negroes  northward.  This 
has  been  primarily  due  to  the  stoppage  of  for 
eign  immigration  and  the  consequent  labor 
shortage  in  the  districts  which  depended  on  the 
immigrant.  The  reasons  why  the  Negro  was 
ready  to  leave  his  Southern  habitat  have  been 
summarized  in  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor 
Eeport  :* 

1 '  General  dissatisfaction  with  conditions,  rav 
ages  of  boll  weevil,  floods,  change  of  crop  sys 
tem,  low  wages,  poor  houses  on  plantations, 
poor  school  facilities,  unsatisfactory  crop  set 
tlements,  rough  treatment,  cruelty  of  the  law 
officers,  unfairness  in  courts,  lynching,  desire 
for  travel,  labor  agents,  the  Negro  press,  let 
ters  from  friends  in  the  North,  and,  finally, 
advice  of  white  friends  in  the  South,  where 
crops  had  failed." 

It  is  impossible  to  calculate  the  numbers  with 
any  likelihood  of  accuracy.  Even  the  census  of 
1920  will  hardly  indicate  what  has  taken  place 
— for  no  one  can  say  what  allowance  ought  to 
be  made  for  natural  increase  in  the  last  ten 
years.  But  the  insurance  companies  reckon 
that  between  May,  1916,  and  September,  1917, 

*  "Negro  Migration  in  1916-17,"  Government  Printing 
Office,  Washington,  1919, 


EXODUS  235 

between  thirty-five  and  forty  thousand  Negroes 
left  Georgia.  Perhaps  the  net  loss  to  the  South 
has  been  a  quarter  of  a  million,  the  majority 
young,  single  men  and  women.  Some  certainly 
put  the  figure  higher.  The  movement  has  slowed 
down,  owing  to  the  after-the-war  stagnancy  in 
trade,  the  very  bad  housing  conditions  in  the 
North,  the  race  riot  in  Chicago,  and  other 
retarding  influences.  With  a  revival  of  trade  it 
may  go  on  more  rapidly.  Certainly  whenever 
a  countryside  in  the  South  is  visited  by  some 
special  act  of  violence  there  is  a  tendency  for 
the  colored  population  to  flee.  Unfortunately, 
the  lot  of  migrants  of  the  type  of  Negroes  is 
always  a  hard  one.  It  is  difficult  to  settle  down 
in  a  new  community.  Irregular  habits  bring 
disease.  Provincial  dullness  makes  it  difficult 
to  find  a  job  or  to  evade  sharpers.  Unfortu 
nately,  also,  Negroes  are  not  by  nature  altruis 
tic,  not  clannish  like  the  Jews.  They  do  not  help 
one  another  in  distress  as  much  as  poor  Whites 
do.  So  many  who  flee  northward  inevitably 
come  to  grief. 

It  is  urged  in  the  South  that  the  North  is  not 
entirely  appreciative  of  the  influx  of  so  many 
Negroes.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  alleged 
that  the  large  Northern  companies  sent  their 
agents  into  every  State  in  the  South  seeking 
labor.  It  was  certainly  useful  to  the  companies. 
And  although  the  loose  and  nondescript  unem 
ployed  immigrants  were  guilty  of  a  number  of 


236      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

crimes,  it  is  generally  held  that  those  who  found 
employment  proved  very  steady  and  reliable. 
The  Negro  proved  a  safe  man  in  the  munition 
factory,  and  it  was  found  he  could  do  a  white 
man's  job  in  a  mine  and  in  the  steel  works.  The 
employers  of  labor  were  well  pleased.  But  there 
was  a  section  of  the  community  that  was  not 
pleased,  and  that  was  the  working  class — the 
poor  Whites  once  more,  who  saw  in  Negro  mi 
gration  an  influx  of  non-union  labor,  depressing 
wages,  and  lowering  the  standard  of  living. 
The  workingmen  speedily  quarreled  with  the 
Negro — seeing  in  him  the  oft  encountered 
strike  breaker.  Those  who  have  gone  through 
the  Negro  district  of  Chicago,  with  its  filthy, 
ramshackle  frame  buildings  occupied  by  Negro 
families,  a  family  to  a  room,  know  how  appalling 
is  the  aspect  of  the  Negro  there.  In  the  old  days 
the  white  population  took  it  as  a  matter  of 
course,  as  they  did  so  many  other  things  in 
this  evil  industrial  conglomeration  so  aptly 
called  the  Jungle.  But  too  much  competition 
and  too  many  unfamiliar,  gloomy  Negro  faces 
on  the  streets  caused  the  nervous  shock  which 
accounted  for  the  Chicago  riots,  begun  strangely 
enough  not  by  a  Negro  attack,  but  by  a  white 
youth  knocking  a  Negro  boy  off  a  raft  on  the 
lake  and  drowning  him.  The  three  days'  free 
fight  which  ensued  was  one  of  the  most  disillu 
sioning  episodes  in  the  history  of  Northern 
friendship  for  the  Negro. 


EXODUS  237 

Nevertheless,  Negro  leaders  still  cry  "Come 
North  I" 

There  have  always  been  those  whd  thought 
that  the  Negro  problem  could  be  solved  by  en 
couraging  migration.  The  exodus  to  the  North 
was  hailed  as  a  partial  liquidation  of  the  South 
ern  trouble.  Doubtless  an  even  distribution  of 
Negroes  over  the  whole  of  the  country  would 
put  them  in  the  desired  minority  as  regards 
Whites.  Outnumbered  by  ten  to  one,  they 
would  never  seem  to  threaten  to  grasp  electoral 
control  or  be  in  a  position  to  use  physical  force 
with  a  chance  of  success.  But  these  are  highly 
theoretical  suppositions.  Even  at  the  present 
great  rate  of  exodus  it  would  take  hundreds  of 
years  to  even  them  out,  and  there  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  the  emigrants  would  distribute 
themselves  easily.  They  would  probably  crowd 
more  and  more  into  the  large  cities  like  Chi 
cago  and  Pittsburgh,  and  be  as  much  involved 
in  evil  conditions  there  as  they  were  in  the 
South. 

Another  popular  misconception  is  that  it  is 
possible  to  find  a  home  for  the  Negro  in  Africa, 
and  get  rid  of  him  that  way.  Men  say  airily, 
"Pack  them  all  off  to  Liberia/'  as  they  used 
to  say,  "Send  the  Jews  back  to  Palestine. "  It 
is  not  a  practical  proposal.  Abraham  Lincoln 
held  this  view,  and  he  opened  negotiations  with 
foreign  governments  in  order  to  find  suitable 


238      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

territory  for  Negro  colonization,  but  he  gave  up 
the  idea  when  General  Butler,  who  investigated 
the  matter  for  him,  convinced  him  that  the 
Negro  birth  rate  was  greater  than  any  possible 
rate  of  transport. 

"What  was  true  in  1865  ought  to  be  more  obvi 
ous  to-day.  It  is  a  physical  impossibility  to 
transport  those  twelve  millions  and  their 
progeny  to  Africa.  If  a  large  instalment  were 
taken,  would  they  not  perish  from  starvation 
and  disease?  The  eyes  of  the  world  would  be 
on  the  United  States  doing  such  a  thing,  and 
they  would  be  involved  in  a  terrible  scandal. 

But,  indeed,  the  first  to  cry  out  * l  Give  us  back 
our  niggers "  would  be  the  South;  for  her 
whole  prosperity  has  a  foundation  of  Negro 
labor.  Take  away  the  black  population,  and  the 
white  farmers,  and  traders,  and  financiers 
would  be  so  impoverished  that  they  also  would 
want  to  emigrate  to  Africa. 

In  a  material  way  would  not  the  whole  con 
tinent  of  America  suffer  greatly?  You  cannot 
withdraw  twelve  million  from  the  laboring 
class  and  go  on  as  before.  It  is  a  ridiculous 
solution.  The  only  reason  for  giving  it  place  in 
serious  criticism  is  that  so  many  people  nurse 
the  delusion  that  the  problem  can  be  solved  by 
deportation.  It  stands  in  the  way  when  people 
would  otherwise  face  the  facts  honestly — our 
forefathers  introduced  the  Negro  into  our 
midst,  he  is  here  to  stay,  and  we  have  to  find 


EXODUS  239 

out  what  is  best  for  him  and  best  for  the  White, 
taking  the  facts  as  they  are. 

One  good  purpose  has,  however,  been  served 
by  the  encouragement  of  Negro  emigration  back 
to  Africa.  It  has  kept  the  Negro  in  touch  with 
his  original  home.  It  has  broadened  the  Negro 's 
outlook  and  started  a  Negro  Zionism — a  senti 
ment  for  Africa.  The  Negro  loves  large  con 
ceptions — the  universal  tempts  his  mind  as  it 
tempts  that  of  the  Slav.  In  short,  Liberianism 
has  possessed  the  Negro  of  a  world  movement 


XI 

IN  NOETH  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  OKLEANS 

LYNCHING  is  more  associated  witli  the  cotton- 
growing  districts  than  with  others.  It  is  not  a 
fact  that  the  further  south  you  go  the  more  vio 
lent  the  temper  of  the  people.  Southeastern 
Georgia,  where  the  main  business  is  lumbering 
and  rice  growing,  has  a  better  record  than  the 
cotton-growing  interior.  The  cotton  planters 
are  aware  of  this,  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to 
curse  the  cotton  and  wish  they  could  turn  to 
something  else.  Cotton  is  not  a  popular  indus 
try.  In  the  old  days  it  bound  slavery  upon 
planter  and  Negro — for  cotton  necessitates 
cheap  labor — and  now  it  keeps  the  Negro  down 
and  perpetuates  an  ungenerous  type  of  life. 

I  worked  down  the  Atlantic  coast  to  Bruns 
wick  and  Jacksonville,  preparing  in  mind  for 
some  sort  of  joyful  surprise  when  I  should  enter 
Florida.  Brunswick  is  one  of  the  oldest  ports 
in  Georgia.  As  far  as  records  go,  it  has  never 
been  disgraced  by  a  lynching.  Its  background 
of  industry  is  chiefly  timber,  and  the  eye  looks 
in  vain  for  a  cotton  bale  or  a  cotton  blossom. 
It  is  a  peaceful  little  city,  all  sand  and  low  palm 
and  scrub,  with  innumerable  grasshoppers  and 
butterflies  even  in  December.  An  open-streeted 

240 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  OELEANS  241 

port  with  placid,  happy  Negroes  and  no  race 
movement  of  any  kind. 

At  Jacksonville  one  experiences  a  complete 
change  of  air.  It  is  the  climate  of  Florida,  and 
the  difference  between  cotton  and  fruit.  The 
difference  also  between  much  sombre  business 
and  some  gilded  pleasure.  When  the  rich  from 
the  North  step  out  of  their  cars  in  Florida  and 
take  their  ease  at  Palm  Beach,  they  naturally 
would  not  care  to  be  mixed  up  in  the  South 's 
pet  sport.  Lynchings  are  bad  business  in  Flor 
ida,  for  if  the  things  occurred  there  that  take 
place  in  the  neighboring  State  of  Georgia  it 
would  certainly  frighten  away  many  polite  and 
wealthy  visitors.  As  regards  the  white  woman 
also,  the  Floridians  do  not  so  assiduously  libel 
the  Negro  as  do  the  Georgians.  Ladies  need  not 
be  afraid  to  visit  the  watering  places;  the  col 
ored  man  is  said  to  have  his  passions  well  under 
control.  Most  of  the  trouble  that  does  occur  is 
in  more  obscure  places,  and  more  in  northern 
than  in  southern  Florida. 

Jacksonville  is  a  large  port  with  a  population 
bordering  on  a  hundred  thousand.  Naturally, 
there  are  masses  of  poor  as  well  as  numbers  of 
rich.  There  is  employment  for  a  great  quantity 
of  Negro  labor,  and  on  the  streets  one  may  ob 
serve  the  characteristics  of  a  large  maritime 
city.  What  strikes  an  Englishman  visiting  these 
Atlantic  ports — Baltimore,  Norfolk,  Savannah, 
Jacksonville,  when  compared  with  Hull,  Car- 


242      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

diff,  Liverpool,  London  Docks,  etc. — is  the 
absence  of  that  somewhat  agitating  phenomenon 
of  black  dock  laborers  walking  out  with  poor 
white  girls.  You  may  see  them  any  evening  in 
England.  As  a  natural  and  instinctive  thing, 
most  Whites  resent  it,  and  street  fights  in  Eng 
land  are  the  not  uncommon  result.  In  America, 
walking  out  with  Negroes  either  innocently  or 
otherwise  is  impossible.  Eiots  and  lynchings  do 
not  arise  from  that  reason,  but  from  alleged 
individual  assaults  upon  white  women.  It 
should  be  remarked  that  womanhood  in  Amer 
ica  is  practically  idealized.  The  public  as  a 
whole  is  disinclined  to  tolerate  a  woman  smok 
ing  or  drinking,  or  bathing  in  inadequate  attire, 
or  even  "spooning."  It  would  not  occur  to  a 
poor  white  factory  girl  as  even  possible  to  walk 
out  with  a  Negro.  Her  moral  self-esteem  is 
higher  than  that  of  her  English  sister.  The  girls 
who  are  seen  walking  out  with  Negroes  in  Lon 
don  belong  more  often  to  a  class  which  is  eco 
nomically  or  morally  submerged. 

The  Jacksonville  Negroes  were  in  a  state  of 
considerable  anxiety  and  ferment  when  I  was 
there.  Not  because  of  white-woman  trouble,  but 
in  anticipation  of  a  riot  breaking  out  on  one  plea 
or  another.  A  bad  lynching  had  occurred  in  the 
preceding  September.  A  drunken  White  quar 
reled  with  a  Negro  taxi  driver,  threatened  him 
and  exasperated  him,  whereupon  a  conflict 
ensued  in  which  the  White  was  killed.  The  white 


IN  FLORIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  243 

mob  then  rounded  up  every  Negro  chauffeur  in 
the  city  and  terrified  a  great  number  of  homes, 
because  the  lyncher  does  not  care  whether  he 
lynches  the  right  Negro  or  not,  as  long  as  one 
of  them  suffers.  And  in  this  case  two  paid  the 
penalty.  Undoubtedly  the  horror  and  terror  of 
being  taken  by  the  mob  is  the  worst  of  an  execu 
tion  of  this  kind. 

The  Negroes  were  very  suspicious  of  white 
men,  and  I  did  not  make  much  progress  inquir 
ing  into  their  ways  of  life.  I  found,  however, 
a  considerably  inflated  prosperity  of  churches1, 
due  to  the  philanthropy  of  Northern  visitors, 
and  a  well-to-do  black  proletariat  working  in 
the  shipbuilding  yard  and  the  docks.  Nearly 
all  the  work  done  by  them  was,  however,  un 
skilled,  and  they  were  only  taken  as  substitutes 
on  skilled  work.  Substitutes  earned  as  much  as 
seven  dollars  a  day.  There  is  a  "Colored" 
Bank  and,  as  at  Birmingham,  a  so-called  "  sky 
scraper  "  of  six  stories  accommodating  all  and 
sundry  of  trades  and  professions.  Once  more, 
successful  drug  stores  and  burial  parlors,  and  a 
Mme.  Nettie  Price  with  beauty  establishment. 
I  called  at  the  War  Camp  Community  Club  for 
colored  soldiers  and  sailors — not  so  enterpris 
ing  as  the  one  I  visited  at  Norfolk — but  the  right 
sort  of  institution,  well  used  in  a  proper  and 
discreet  way. 

1  crossed  the  neck  of  land  to  Pensacola,  pass 
ing  through  Tallahassee,  a  district  where  fine 


244      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

leaves  of  tobacco  for  cigar  wrapping  are  grown 
under  trellis.  Orange  groves  hung  in  plenteous 
fruit  just  ripe  to  pick,  changing  from  green 
to  gold.  Pensacola  is  a  port  with  a  great  history 
of  its  own  involving  Spanish,  British,  French, 
American  history.  Its  background  is  of  orange 
groves  and  pecan  orchards.  The  pecan  nut,  a 
refinement  from  the  walnut,  is  so  prized  in  the 
rest  of  the  United  States  that  one  can  make 
a  good  living  and  save  money  on  a  planting  of 
a  hundred  or  so  trees.  The  main  street  of  Pen 
sacola,  leading  down  to  the  long  pier,  is  very 
picturesque,  with  its  mariners'  grocers  and  ma 
rine  stores.  A  passenger  vessel  plies  weekly  to 
Mobile,  the  great  fruit  port  of  southern  Ala 
bama,  and  it  is  possible  to  get  a  passage  on 
cargo  boats  going  to  New  Orleans.  Before  the 
war  there  was  much  maritime  traffic,  but  few  of 
the  vessels  which  sailed  away  to  do  transport 
and  other  war  duties  have  returned. 

Pensacola  claims  to  be  the  oldest  white  city 
in  the  United  States,  disputing  the  matter  with 
St.  Augustine,  Jacksonville,  and  is  taking  the 
question  very  seriously  in  view  of  any  celebra 
tion.  It  is  not  an  important  place,  but  is  build 
ing  toward  its  own  supposed  greatness,  has  a 
fine  new  railway  station  and  huge,  white  stone 
post  office  and  mammoth  hotel.  These  buildings 
are  puzzling  in  a  town  where  life  seems  so 
placid. 

Here  was  a  bad  lynching  for  rape  a  year  ago, 


IN  FLORIDA  AND  NEW  OELEANS  245 

and  a  Negro  was  burned  to  death.  Eepresenta- 
tions  were  made  to  the  governor  of  Florida  on 
the  matter.  The  governor,  Sidney  I.  Catts,  re 
plied  that  he  made  every  effort  to  keep  down 
lynching  in  the  State,  but  he  could  not  bring 
the  lynchers  to  trial,  as  the  citizenship  of  the 
State  would  not  stand  for  it.  Apparently  he 
condoned  the  burning  of  the  Negro,  because  it 
was  a  clear  case  of  sexual  wantonness  and  vio 
lence  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  Negro  race.  It 
is  somewhat  surprising  that  the  chief  officer  of 
the  law  should  thus  fail  to  uphold  the  law.  Who 
is  to  uphold  it  if  he  do  not?  A  contrast  this, 
to  the  heroic  behavior  of  Mayor  Smith  of 
Omaha  I 

Nature  did  not  intend  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  as 
a  frame  for  lynching,  nor  that  those  happy,  blue 
skies  should  look  down  on  human  candles.  If 
ever  there  was  a  serene  and  happy  place  in  the 
world  it  is  here,  and  there  is  scope  for  all  races 
to  live  and  to  let  live.  Health  is  on  the  shoulder 
of  the  winds  that  blow ;  fish  and  fruit  and  grain 
and  sugar  are  abundant.  Are  not  the  harbors 
bobbing  with  grapefruit;  upon  occasion  does 
not  every  boy  suck  the  natural  sugar  from  the 
cane?  The  luscious  canteloupe  fills  with  the  sun ; 
peaches  and  nectarines  swell  to  double  sizes  of 
lusciousness  and  sweetness.  Visitors,  more 
over,  bring  a  plenitude  of  dollars  and  scatter 
them  as  they  go,  Jacksonville,  Tallahassee, 


246      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Pensacola,  Mobile,  New  Orleans — they  are  more 
blest  by  Nature  than  other  cities  of  the  South. 

Personally,  I  preferred  New  Orleans.  It  is 
the  finest  and  most  interesting  city  in  which  to 
live.  It  is  by  far  the  largest  city  of  the  South, 
Atlanta  coming  second,  and  Birmingham,  Ala 
bama,  third.  It  is  the  great  port  of  the  vast  Mis 
sissippi  Eiver,  and  is  the  head  of  what  was  a 
mighty  river  traffic.  It  faces  south,  and  is  more 
related  to  France  and  Spain  and  the  Indies 
than  to  Britain  and  Scandinavia  and  the  North 
Atlantic.  Like  New  York,  it  has  also  a  strange 
mixture  of  races,  but  they  are  southern  races. 

Of  course  it  has  been  notorious  as  a  city  of 
pleasure  and  fast  living.  Everyone  says  to  the 
tourist,  "When  you  get  to  New  Orleans,  you'll 
see  'life,'  : '  by  which  is  meant  the  life-wasting 
of  the  immoral.  Its  reputation  in  that  respect 
resembled  that  of  Cairo,  and  the  curious,  even 
if  they  did  not  wish  to  taste,  could  pay  to  be 
shown  round  and  thus  satisfy  their  eyes  by 
looking  upon  evil.  The  money  which  flows 
southward  from  the  pockets  of  the  rich  through 
out  the  winter  has  no  doubt  helped  to  keep  the 
red  light  burning.  Now  all  has  changed,  how 
ever.  The  various  vice  crusades  and  the  enact 
ment  of  prohibition  have  combined  to  bring 
New  Orleans  to  the  moral  level  of  other  cities 
of  America.  There  is  a  violent  opposition  to  the 
Puritan  movement  in  many  sections  of  the  pop 
ulation,  and  the  law  is  flouted  very  often,  but 


IN  FLOKIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  247 

New  Orleans  nevertheless  has  ceased  to  present 
any  particular  interest  to  the  low  pleasure 
seeker  or  those  of  morbid  imagination.  The  city 
will  be  the  better  for  it.  It  is  a  wonderful  place. 
The  inhabitants,  after  all,  were  not  mainly  en 
gaged  in  the  business  of  pleasure,  but  in  honest 
trade,  and  they  increase  ever.  New  Orleans  is 
the  metropolis  of  the  South,  and  has  a  vast  and 
growing  commerce  which  is  rendered  pictur 
esque  by  the  glamour  of  that  abundance  of 
Nature  in  the  midst  of  which  she  is  founded. 

One  pictures  New  Orleans  as  a  city  of  men  in 
white,  with  white  hats  as  well  as  white  clothes, 
men  smoking  heavy,  black  cigars,  or  saunter 
ing  idly  in  the  company  of  exotic-looking  ladies ; 
a  city  of  wide  open  streets  and  white  houses, 
of  many  open-air  cafes  and  garden  theatres  and 
luxuriant  parks,  a  place  certainly  of  fashion 
and  gayety  and  elegant  living.  But  what  I  found 
on  my  first  impression  was  an  unpainted  city, 
a  mass  of  houses  mostly  wooden,  but  moulder 
ing,  pallid,  and  peeling,  of  every  hue  of  decay. 
Some  walls  seemed  ready  to  fall  out,  some  ready 
to  fall  in.  Man  of  the  period  1920,  European, 
industrialized,  diminutive,  clad  in  sober  garb, 
pursued  the  common  way  of  life.  The  cheap 
lunch  shop,  hall-mark  of  American  civilization, 
identified  the  city  as  American.  There  were  the 
usual  lofty,  ramshackle  caravanserai  with 
Negro  bell  boys  and  the  clatter  of  ice  water,  the 
usual  public  gardens  strewn  with  the  newspa- 


248      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

pers  of  the  day.  But  though  it  was  winter,  the 
weather  was  hot.  The  atmosphere  was  dense 
and  warm,  and  the  closeness  was  not  dissipated 
even  by  the  wind  when  it  came.  A  gale  blew  in 
from  the  Gulf.  It  scattered  warm  rain  in  the 
city,  it  rushed  through  multitudes  of  palm  trees 
in  the  suburbs  outside. 

The  American  part  of  the  city  is  vast  and 
residential  and  conventional.  The  business  sec 
tion  expresses  business;  the  home  section  is 
uptown  and  removed  from  the  life  of  the  cen 
ter.  If  there  were  only  this  "new"  part,  noth 
ing  would  distinguish  New  Orleans  from  other 
cities.  But  it  has  its  vieux  carree  in  which  its 
history  is  written,  the  old,  or  French,  part  of 
the  town.  The  American  side  is  continually  re 
building  itself,  but  the  French  remains  as  it 
was.  It  has  not  torn  itself  down  and  got  rebuilt 
in  modern  style.  Its  great  public  place  is  Jack 
son  Square,  flanked  by  the  market,  and  that  is 
beautifully  prim  and  French,  but  it  is  foiled  by 
ugly  railings  and  municipal  sheds.  Neverthe 
less,  it  holds  one  more  than  does  the  architec 
tural  grandeur  of  Lafayette  Square,  in  the 
American  half,  with  its  stupendously  grand 
Post  Office  and  Town  Hall;  and  the  subdued 
simplicity  of  Dauphine  Street  and  Chartres  and 
Bienville  and  many  others  is  better  than  any 
quantity  of  the  new  and  takes  one  back  in  mind 
to  Old  Paris  and  Old  London.  With  all  its  Cre 
ole  restaurants  and  cheap  markets  and  French 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  249 

churches,  it  reminded  me  forcibly  of  Soho,  in 
London,  but  of  course  it  is  larger  and  grander. 

Once  a  tongue  of  the  Mississippi  divided  the 
old  from  the  new,  a  long  and  narrow  strip  of 
somewhat  torpid  water.  Now  it  has  been  filled 
up,  though  where  the  water  was  it  is  in  some 
places  green  with  grass.  Six  lines  of  electric 
cars  and  four  streams  of  other  traffic  go  up  and 
down  Canal  Street,  as  it  is  now  called.  It  is 
a  great  highway,  finer  in  some  respects  than 
the  Nevsky  Prospect  in  Petrograd,  certainly 
broader.  On  one  side  of  it  and  down  to  the 
water  edge  it  is  definitely  and  undoubtedly  old; 
on  the  other  it  is  definitely  and  undoubtedly 
new.  On  one  side  is  reality  and  matter  of  fact, 
on  the  other  glamour  and  color ;  on  one  you  make 
or  lose  money,  on  the  other  you  have  or  miss 
adventures;  one  is  prose,  the  other  poetry;  and 
it  is  well  understood  in  New  Orleans.  You  work 
in  one,  you  live  a  conventional  home  life  in  one, 
but  in  the  other  you  seek  pleasure  and  adven 
tures  away  from  home.  Not  that  you  cannot 
dine  on  the  new  side,  where  there  are  costly 
and  luxurious  hotels,  but  an  interesting  and 
characteristic  story  might  be  written  of  a  man 
who  stayed  too  long  over  his  wine  in  the  new 
part,  and  then,  late  at  night,  strayed  across  this 
broad,  dark  Lethe  which  divides  old  from  new, 
to  lose  himself  on  the  farther  side — an  adven 
ture  and  a  dream. 

The  foreign  streets  are  of  red  brick  and 


250      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

painted  wood,  with  vine-wreathed  verandas  and 
balconies.  The  houses  are  crowded  within.  Bed 
painted  wood,  with  vine-wreathed  verandas  and 
show  a  bed  occupying  half  a  tiny  room,  and  per 
haps  a  Creole  lady  in  the  bed.  There  is  not  much 
squeamishness  in  the  Creoles.  French  is  spoken 
everywhere,  and  often  English  is  not  under 
stood.  Most  of  the  people  are  Catholic,  and  are 
related  spiritually  to  "Mother  Church. "  Old 
St,  Louis  Cathedral,  with  its  spiky  tower,  is 
full  of  people  of  a  Sunday  morning,  and  the 
service  is  so  perfunctory  that  it  is  clear  it  is 
no  mission  church,  but  one  long  established  and 
sure.  There  are  monastical  institutions,  even 
for  the  Negroes.  While  Irish  Catholics  do 
not  like  Negroes,  the  French  and  Spanish  do. 
Specially  interesting  is  the  Convent  of  the 
Sacred  Heart,  with  its  black  Mother  Superior 
and  its  happy,  placid  Negro  Catholicism.  The 
best  of  the  Negroes  call  themselves  Negro  Cre 
oles.  The  Creoles  are  the  cross-breed  of  French 
and  Spaniard  and  their  descendants.  Strictly 
speaking,  no  Negroes  are  Creoles,  but  the 
descendants  of  the  slaves  of  the  Creoles  and 
in  general  the  French  and  Spanish-speaking 
Negroes  call  themselves  Negro  Creoles,  and  are 
generally  indulged  in  the  appellation.  Creoles 
indeed  have  not  much  prejudice  against  colory 
being  much  mixed  themselves,  and  in  any  case 
of  French  extraction,  and  the  French  have 
never  had  much  sense  of  racial  distinction.  To 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  OELEANS  251 

speak  French  is  a  sign  of  belonging  to  society 
in  New  Orleans.  The  opening  of  the  opera  sea 
son  at  the  French  Opera  House  (lately  burned 
down)  is  the  event  of  the  winter,  and  everyone 
of  importance  must  be  present.  The  next  sign 
of  good  taste  is  to  know  cuisine,  and  to  be  able 
to  differentiate  the  delicaces  and  the  subtleties 
of  the  famous  Creole  chefs. 

I  visited  the  mayor,  Catholic,  but  of  German 
name.  He  could  not  easily  have  kept  his  mayor 
alty  with  such  a  name  in  England.  But  here 
he  was  very  popular.  He  was  a  human  pyramid 
in  long,  voluminous  morning  coat,  smoking  a 
cigar  as  he  worked,  but  walking  with  a  ponder 
ous  and  poised  walk,  and  exhibiting  a  front  of 
truly  mayoral  proportions.  He  said,  concerning 
the  Negroes,  "We  have  no  trouble  with  them 
here;  we  get  on  very  well  together.  They  are 
outside  politics;  that  makes  it  much  easier.  If 
they  had  the  power  to  vote,  of  course  it  would 
be  different. "  New  Orleans  is  one  of  those 
places  where  a  Negro's  grandfather  must  have 
voted  if  he  is  to  vote,  and  he  must  prove  that 
his  grandfather  voted.  I  demurred  to  the 
mayor.  ' '  The  Negroes  seem  very  suspicious  of 
the  Whites,  and  hostile, "  said  I.  He  thought 
not.  It  was  evidently  his  set  policy  to  have  that 
point  of  view.  Politically  he  could  not  afford  to 
be  strongly  interested  in  the  Negro  ferment. 
For  although  the  disenfranchised  Negro  popu 
lation  thought  him  friendly  to  them,  the  Whites 


252      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

also  thought  him  "  sound  on  the  nigger  ques 
tion.  "  No  white  man  who  expressed  sympathy 
for  the  Negro  could  possibly  succeed  in  Louisi 
ana  politics.  There  was  proceeding  while  I  was 
there  a  violent  election  campaign  for  the  gov 
ernorship  of  the  State,  and  it  was  curious  that, 
though  the  Negro  could  take  little  personal  part 
In  the  choosing  of  the  governor,  he  neverthe 
less  took  almost  first  place  in  the  political  dis 
cussions.  Soundness  on  the  Negro  question 
seemed  to  be  the  chief  test  of  candidacy.  A  man 
who  might  betray  lynchers  to  justice  or  any 
thing  of  that  kind  was  evidently  feared  by  the 
white  population.  Nevertheless,  as  I  have  said, 
the  Creoles  were  on  friendly  terms  with  the 
Negroes.  It  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Irish- Ameri 
can  section  of  the  population,  the  undifferenti- 
ated  Southern  Whites,  who  determine  the  way 
of  politics  here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  South.  It 
is  likely  that  if  the  Creoles  were  left  to  them 
selves  with  the  Negro  population,  they  would 
grant  them  full  rights,  not  only  in  the  courts 
and  in  suffrage,  but  socially.  The  Negroes  know 
this,  and  are  therefore  on  very  good  terms  with 
the  French-speaking  population. 

Nevertheless,  it  must  be  said  that  but  for  a 
handful  of  leaders  the  Negro  population  is  more 
dull,  more  impassive,  and  ignorant  than  else 
where.  A  black  proletariat  of  a  hundred  thou 
sand  ought  to  be  able  to  raise  on  its  broad  base 
a  fine  column  of  intelligence  and  business. 


IN  FLORIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  253 

There  ought  to  be  large  and  flourishing  groups 
of  doctors  and  lawyers  and  shopkeepers,  but 
here,  as  at  Birmingham,  there  is  the  usual 
Insurance  Society's  building,  which  is  all-in-all. 
And  Negro  insurance  is  little  more  than  the 
organization  of  burying  clubs,  with  the  Negro 
undertakers  as  prime  beneficiaries.  The  biggest 
Negro  business  throughout  the  South  is  con 
nected  with  burying  Negroes.  It  is  sad,  but  it  is 
characteristic  of  this  era  of  their  development. 
New  Orleans  has  its  "Pythian  Building,"  it3 
temple  of  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  of  which  the 
debonair  Mr.  Green  is  Grand  Master,  not  only 
for  the  State  of  Louisiana,  but  for  the  world. 
This  is  the  civic  center  of  the  Negro's  life  in 
New  Orleans,  and,  like  the  Penny  Bank  Build- 
ing  of  Birmingham,  and  its  sister  building  at 
Jacksonville,  houses  many  activities.  The  Pyth 
ian  Temple  of  New  Orleans  is  said  to  be  the 
finest  Negro  building  in  the  United  States.  It 
is  a  fine  edifice,  and  in  America  business  is 
judged  much  more  by  the  building  it  inhabits 
than  in  Europe.  An  integral  part  of  the  temple 
is  a  very  useful  theatre,  not  a  cinema  hall,  but 
a  genuine  stage  for  the  "  legitimate "  drama. 
Here,  no  doubt,  the  Knights  of  Pythias  appear 
in  full  regalia  and  parade  to  do  the  pseudo 
ritual  of  the  society.  But  the  theatre  is  used 
for  all  manner  of  purposes. 

I  was  present  one  Sunday  afternoon  at  a  local 
meeting  of  the  National  Association.  The  South- 


254      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

ern  White  is  opposed  to  the  Association,  and 
would  do  much  to  thwart  it  if  he  knew  much 
about  it.  But  the  Southern  Whites  do  not  mix 
with  Negro  intellectuals,  and  are  content  to  live 
in  that  paradise  indicated  by  the  mayor — We 
get  on  all  right  with  them  down  here. 

When,  however,  a  bad  lynching  takes  place 
the  local  white  population  soon  hears  of  the 
National  Association.  It  sends  its  representa 
tives  down  from  New  York  to  investigate  the 
facts.  In  such  cases  facts  are  the  last  things 
the  white  community  wish  brought  to  light,  and 
then  the  National  Association  is  discovered  and 
roundly  abused.  Its  representatives  are  some 
times  white,  which  makes  them  more  dangerous 
from  a  Southern  point  of  view.  Attempts  are 
made  to  "  railroad "  them — run  them  out  of 
town. 

The  case  of  Mr.  Shillady,  in  Texas,  must  be 
mentioned  here.  He  is  the  white  secretary  of 
this  militant  association,  and  has  done  very 
valuable  work  for  his  country  by  investigating 
and  authenticating  the  details  of  mob  murders. 
Texas  has  a  bad  record  for  lynching,  rioting, 
and  lawlessness.  The  Texan  people,  however, 
would  not  have  him,  and  he  was  actually 
thrashed  publicly  by  a  judge  and  a  constable. 
It  was  done  in  front  of  the  Driscoll  Hotel,  Aus 
tin,  where  Shillady  was  staying.  Having  been 
assaulted  in  this  way,  he  was  put  on  a  Northern 
train  and  told  to  leave  it  at  his  peril.  The  judge 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  255 

remains  still  judge,  the  constable  remains  still 
a  constable — if  he  be  not  now  a  sergeant  or  in 
spector.  When  we  sing  "Down  Texas  Way" 
that  is  what  it  means. 

The  local  meeting  this  Sunday  afternoon  was 
of  a  quarrelsome  character.  A  well-known  and 
devoted  Negro  leader  had  been  accused  in  a  New 
Orleans  Negro  paper  of  "  selling  out  the  col 
ored  folk"  at  St.  Louis.  There  had  been  great 
enthusiasm  in  the  forming  of  what  is  called  the 
"American  Legion,"  a  national  club  of  all  who 
had  served  or  worn  an  American  uniform  in 
the  Great  War.  Negro  membership  of  the 
Legion  was  apparently  being  barred  in  the 
South,  and  some  wrong-headed  Negro  journal 
ist  had  accused  an  old  Creole  Negro  of  attend 
ing  the  St.  Louis  inaugural  gathering  of  the 
Legion  and  agreeing  that  Negro  soldiers  and 
sailors  should  be  excluded. 

A  violent  personal  quarrel  banged  from  man 
to  man.  As  I  was  asked  to  speak,  I  told  them 
I  thought  they  could  ill  afford  to  quarrel  among 
themselves.  Nevertheless,  I  had  noticed  a 
marked  disposition  to  quarrel  among  the  edu 
cated  Negroes.  Loyalty  to  one  another  was  not 
one  of  their  characteristics.  No  people  could 
do  much  who  did  not  prize  unity  more  than 
discord.  While  so  many  were  against  them  all, 
how  absurd  to  spend  an  afternoon  quarreling 
with  one  another! 

This  was  warmly  applauded,  though  no  doubt 


266      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

one  might  as  well  sit  in  Canute's  chair  and  "bid 
the  main  flood  bate  its  usual  height, "  as  bid 
them  cease  to  quarrel.  They  brought  the  fight 
ing  instinct  out  of  Africa,  and  still  longed  to 
wield  the  battle-axe. 

Besides  the  Pythian  Temple  Block,  New 
Orleans  has  also  a  sort  of  South  Street,  a  cheap 
line  of  shops  with  "  swell  toggery "  for  Negroes*. 
Negro  suit-pressing  establishments,  barbers, 
and  the  like,  pawnshops,  and  what  not.  This  is 
South  Eampart,  and  on  it  is  the  People's  Drug 
Store,  a  hive  of  Negro  life.  Up  above  the  store 
Mrs.  Camille  Cohen-Bell  operates  an  insurance 
company,  and  her  father,  "W.  L.  Cohen,  runs 
for  what  it  is  worth  in  opinion  (it  cannot  count 
much  in  votes),  the  Negro  Eepublican  party. 

During  a  fortnight  in  New  Orleans  I  visited 
frequently  this  pleasant  company  of  Negro 
Creoles,  the  well-educated  Mrs.  Bell,  who  loved 
to  speak  French,  and  her  ebullient  father.  The 
place  was  haunted  by  undertakers.  It  appeared 
that  when  a  Negro  was  insured  in  the  company 
he  was  allotted  to  an  undertaker  in  case  of 
death.  Undertakers  therefore  became  very 
anxious  when  clients  moved  out  of  their  parish. 
If  any  one  fell  sick  away  from  home,  and  there 
was  the  likelihood  of  his  dying  and  being  buried 
by  a  stranger,  the  fret  of  the  local  buriers  was 
comical. 

I  met  here  a  very  advanced  Negro  lady  who 
gave  out  very  positive  views  on  morality.  The 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  257 

presence  of  a  white  man  was  perhaps  a  chal 
lenge  to  her  mind.  Some  white  woman  called 
Jean  Gordon  had  been  making  a  missionary  ad 
dress  to  the  Negroes  on  moral  purity  and  proper 
behavior  at  a  large  Baptist  church.  I  did  not 
hear  Jean  Gordon,  but  her  black  protagonist 
was  so  forceful  I  asked  her  to  write  a  statement 
of  what  she  thought.  This  was  her  answer  to 
Jean  Gordon : 

"  .  .  .  Jean  Gordon  states  that  every  young 
colored  girl  knows  no  white  man  may  marry  her 
under  the  law,  and  if  she  brings  into  the  world 
an  illegitimate  child  she  is  not  fit  to  be  a  mother. 
All  very  true.  Now,  I  daresay  that  every  young 
colored  girl  is  aware  of  this  fact,  but,  judging 
from  the  way  the  white  men  run  after  these 
colored  girls,  either  they  (the  white  men)  are 
in  ignorance  of  the  law,  or  it  is  their  object  fla 
grantly  to  disobey  it.  There  is  one  thing  I  wish 
all  white  men  and  women  to  bear  in  mind,  when 
they  refer  to  illicit  relations  of  white  men  and 
black  women,  and  vice  versa — it  is  this:  the 
laws  of  this  Southland  are  made  by  white  men, 
and  no  sooner  have  they  made  these  laws  than 
they  get  busy  finding  ways  to  break  them  and 
evading  punishment  for  so  doing.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  no  Negro  woman  seeks  the  at 
tentions  of  a  white  man — rather  is  the  shoe  on 
the  other  foot,  and  Negro  women  have  a  very 
hard  time  making  Whites  keep  in  their  places. 
However,  the  attraction  is  not  confined  to  the 


258      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

men  of  tlie  white  race,  for  good-looking  colored 
men  have  as  hard  a  time  as  the  good-looking 
colored  women.  So,  it  seems  to  me  that  if  Jean 
Gordon  should  address  an  audience  of  white 
men  and  women,  and  plead  with  them  to  teach 
their  boys,  husbands,  brothers,  and  fathers  the 
necessity  of  respecting  the  laws,  and  the  women 
of  all  races,  then  colored  young  women  would 
have  no  trouble  keeping  their  virtue  and  their 
morals.  All  honor  is  due  to  the  Negro  women, 
for  no  one  knows  better  than  Jean  Gordon  her 
self  the  terrible  pressure  brought  against  them 
by  white  men  who  seek  to  force  their  attentions 
on  them.  The  wonder  of  it  is  that  so  many  of 
them  are  able  to  hold  out  against  such  odds,  but 
God  is  in  His  heaven  and  does  not  sleep.  So, 
I  say,  let  the  white  women  get  busy  and  teach 
morality  and  respect  to  their  own,  and  we  shall 
see  how  that  will  work  out.  As  for  illegitimate 
children,  the  bearing  of  these  is  not  confined  to 
women  of  the  Negro  race  by  any  means.  The 
white  infant  asylums  will  give  ample  proof  of 
this.  We  know  full  well  that  a  white  man  may 
not  marry  a  colored  girl  in  the  South,  but  we 
wonder  just  why  it  is  he  does  not  marry  the 
white  girl  whom  he  seduces?  I  am  able  to  give 
a  partial  reason— THE  FOECE  OF  HABIT! 
The  white  man  has  grown  so  accustomed  to  se 
ducing  Negro  women  and  getting  by  with  it, 
that  the  virtue  of  his  own  women  has  come  to 
mean  nothing  to  him. 


IN  FLORIDA  AND  NEW  ORLEANS  259 

"We  now  come  to  Jean  Gordon's  statement 
relative  to  'wild  stories  are  being  circulated 
that  the  Negro  won  the  great  world  war.  .  .  .  ' 
No  intelligent  Negro  can  claim  that  the  Negro 
won  the  world  war,  but  every  intelligent  man, 
woman,  and  child,  in  this  country  and  on  the 
other  side,  is  aware  that  the  Negro  did  his  share 
in  winning  it  over  there,  and  did  his  full  share 
over  here.  The  Negro  has  participated  in  every 
war  in  which  this  country  has  engaged,  and  at 
no  time  did  he  retreat  nor  show  the  yellow 
streak.  No  one  can  cite  an  instance  where  a 
Negro  protested  against  going  to  the  front. 
Against  propaganda  that  was  overwhelming, 
the  Negro  remained  loyal.  The  first  Negroes  to 
set  foot  on  French  soil  were  from  Louisiana — 
longshoremen ;  they  were  not  soldiers,  true,  but 
they  did  what  they  were  sent  to  do,  and  did  it 
well.  Very  few  white  regiments  from  Louisiana 
saw  the  firing  line,  yet  they  are  all  soldiers.  No 
doubt,  had  they  been  sent  to  the  front,  they 
would  have  fought,  but  so  would  every  black 
citizen  of  the  United  States.  However,  if  it  is 
true  that  'comparatively  few  of  them  fought 
when  the  total  of  the  millions  of  white  men 
who  died  in  that  struggle  is  considered/  the 
reason  for  that  is  that  the  South  did  its  level 
best  to  keep  the  Negro  out  of  the  war  as  a  sol 
dier.  And  it  must  be  known  that  every  white 
man  who  fought  and  died  was  not  an  American  I 
Every  black  man  who  fought  did  his  part  credit- 


260      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

ably,  as  has  ever  been  the  case.  Whole  Negro 
regiments  were  decorated  by  the  French,  and 
bear  in  mind  that  among  those  who  were  the 
first  to  be  decorated  by  the  French  were  Ameri 
can  Negroes!  As  for  the  fighting  qualities  of 
the  Negro,  all  I  need  do  is  to  refer  any  'doubt 
ing  Thomas'  to  Xon  Hill.  Nothing  more  need 
be  said.  And  I  repeat  for  all  concerned  that 
while  the  Negro  did  not  win  the  world  war,  he 
did  his  share  in  helping  to  win  it  over  there, 
and  Ke  and  his  women  who  remained  over  here 
helped  to  win  it  by  laboring  and  giving  funds. 
.  .  .  The  Negro  dug  trenches,  he  fought,  he 
died  on  the  battlefield,  he  gave  of  his  money  and 
his  labor  over  here,  and  his  women  gave  of  their 
money  and  labor.  Did  the  Negro  help  win  the 
great  world  war?  I'll  say  he  did! II  Will  any 
one  say  he  did  not?  If  anyone  has  done  more, 
let  him  come  forward. 

"Before  concluding,  I  wish  to  ask  Jean  Gor- 
'don  just  why  it  is  she  and  the  women  of  the 
South  are  so  bitterly  opposed  to  giving  suffrage 
to  Negro  women?  Do  they  fear  us?  Yea,  they 
need  to  fear  us,  for  we  have  made  up  our  minds 
that  we  are  going  to  help  our  men  of  the  South 
get  their  rights,  and  Jean  Gordon,  being  a 
woman,  is  fully  aware  that  when  a  woman  wills 
a  thing,  it  is  as  good  as  done.  The  Negro  men 
are  going  to  come  out  on  top,  and  their  women 
are  going  to  see  to  it.  The  Negro  men  are  going 
to  learn  to  protect  their  women  from  the  snares 


IN  FLOEIDA  AND  NEW  OELEANS  261 

of  white  men,  and  their  women  are  going  to  help 
them  do  this,  too  ...  No  longer  does  a  Negro 
woman  consider  it  an  honor  to  have  a  white 
man  for  a  l friend' — a  lover;  gradually  have  we 
made  her  understand  that  it  is  an  insult,  and 
she  now  tells  her  father,  brother,  or  husband, 
as  the  case  may  be,  and  it  is  up  to  this  man  to 
defend  the  virtue  of  his  female  relative,  in  the 
same  way  the  white  man  defends  his.  No  more 
do  we  hear  nice-looking  colored  boys  bragging 
that  such  and  such  a  white  woman  is  quite  crazy: 
for  him,  for  we  have  shown  him  that  her  affec 
tion  for  him  is  likely  to  lead  him  into  trouble, 
so,  having  quite  a  variety  of  colors  to  choose 
from  in  the  women  of  his  own  race  (thanks  to 
the  white  man  for  that),  the  Negro  boy  runs 
along  with  the  kind  of  girl  who  pleases  him, 
and  keeps  out  of  trouble.  Very  often,  though, 
the  White  does  not  let  him  stay  out  of  trouble 
— there  are  so  many  ways  devised  by  these  nice 
white  people  to  hurt  the  Negro  who  is  peace 
ably  bent.  The  Negro  has  been  patient,  true, 
but  we  all  know  there  is  an  end  to  all  patience. 
I  hope  the  time  has  come  when  the  Whites  of 
this  section  will  take  up  more  time  in  improving 
themselves  and  less  time  in  seeing  the  error  of 
our  ways.  We  both  of  us  have  much  to  do,  but 
we  Negroes  are  aware  of  it,  and  are  anxious 
to  improve  ourselves,  but  we  are  unable  to  take 
pattern  after  those  who  are  more  in  need  of  les 
sons  than  we,  The  Negro  is  bound  to  come  out 


262      THE  SOUL  OE  JOHN  BEOWN 

on  top — even  though  he  is  in  a  hopeless  minor 
ity.  Eight  will  ever  and  always  crush  Might; 
for  reference,  see  William  Hohenzollern ! " 

By  this  sulphurous  little  smoke  one  may  know 
of  subterranean  fire.  When  the  earthquake 
comes  the  Jean  Gordons  will  fall  down  and 
the  new  Negro  woman  will  stand  forth.  White 
society  in  places  like  New  Orleans  may  one  day 
be  overthrown  unless  it  can  live  for  ideals  and 
reform  its  institutions.  Much  depends  on  the 
law  which  is  corrupted  and  much  on  the 
churches  now  in  decay.  Literature  in  New 
Orleans  is  nigh  dead,  so  I  will  not  mention  that. 


xn 

THE  NEW  MIND  OF  THE  NEGEO 

BESENTMENT  is  the  main  characteristic  of  the 
Negro  forward  movement.  In  endeavoring  to 
understand  the  Negro  mind  a  maximum  is 
gained  by  answering  the  question:  What  does 
it  mean  to  have  been  a  slave?  Analysis  of  racial 
consciousness  at  once  brings  to  light  in  the  case 
of  the  Negro  a  slave  mentality.  He  has  been 
pre-dispositioned  by  slavery. 

To  have  been  a  slave,  or  to  be  the  child  of  a 
slave,  means  to  have  an  old  unpaid  grudge  in 
the  blood;  to  have,  in  fact,  resentment  either 
smouldering  or  abeyant  or  militant.  If  it  does 
not  develop  in  the  slave  it  will  develop  in  the 
child  of  the  slave  or  the  child  of  the  child.  It 
may  not  take  a  violent  form.  Certain  circum 
stances,  such  as  prosperity,  have  power  to  neu 
tralize  it.  On  the  other  hand,  certain  other  cir 
cumstances  have  power  to  bring  it  more  rapidly 
to  a  head.  The  virus  feeds  on  grievances,  will 
even  feed  on  imaginary  grievances,  but  most 
certainly  will  grow  apace  on  real  grievances. 
In  all  seriousness,  there  is  nothing  like  burning 
people  alive  for  bringing  out  active  spite  and 
hate.  Because  of  burning  and  lynching,  the 

263 


264      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

whole  of  American  Negrodom  swells  larger  in 
resentment,  day  by  day,  and  moon  by  moon. 

The  character  of  ex-slave,  and  the  child  of 
one  who  was  a  slave,  is  aptly  shown  by  the  way 
the  Negro  treats  animals,  in  the  way  also  in 
which  he  treats  those  Negroes  who  happen  to 
come  under  him. 

It  is  appalling  to  hear  a  Negro  say  to  a  horse 
struggling  with  a  heavy  load :  *  *  I  '11  take  a  stick 
and  beat  you  to  death, "  and  to  realize  that  the 
voice  of  the  tyrannous  master  is  being  repeated 
as  by  a  human  phonograph.  If  the  American 
Negroes  are  more  cruel  to  animals,  though 
quick  to  understand  their  ways,  it  is  because 
they  conceive  of  themselves  as  masters  and  the 
animals  as  their  slaves. 

For  while  a  man  is  a  slave  he  is  learning  in 
one  way  to  be  a  master.  A  slave's  children  are 
more  ready  to  be  tyrannous  than  the  children 
of  one  who  never  has  been  a  slave.  When  a 
slave  is  being  flogged  he  is  learning  racially  how 
to  flog  when  he  gets  a  chance.  His  children  will 
have  a  flogging  spirit  in  them.  When  he  is  being 
tortured  he  is  learning  how  to  torture. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  looks  upon  animals  as 
friends  and  equals.  He  loves  his  horse  and  his 
dog,  he  honors  the  fox  and  the  bear.  Not  so  the 
Negro,  the  Eussian  peasant,  the  Jew.  They 
have  an  attitude  toward  the  animals  which  is 
quite  other.  And  toward  human  beings  in 
their  power  or  employ  they  often  have  a  point 


THE  NEGRO'S  NEW  MIND         265 

of  view  which  is  hateful.  The  peasant  workman 
in  the  power  of  the  Kulak  peasant,  the  Jewish 
seamstress  in  the  power  of  the  Jew  who  owna 
the  i  i  sweatshop, "  the  Negro  workman  under 
the  Negro  boss  or  foreman  I  To  be  in  the  power 
of  a  master  is  bad,  but  to  be  in  the  power  of  a 
slave  is  so  much  worse  I 

In  a  land  where  the  slave  class  is  gaining 
power  there  is  therefore  a  great  deal  of  resent 
ment  in  the  air.  America  has  it ;  Eussia  has  it. 
To-day  all  the  world  has  it.  In  the  Great  War 
the  youth  of  almost  every  country  underwent 
the  yoke  of  military  slavery,  and  what  resent 
ment  there  is  against  the  masters !  In  Germany, 
where  that  slavery  was  worst,  it  raised  Sparta- 
cus  from  death.  And  who  was  this  Spartacua 
who  has  suddenly  become  a  type  and  given  a 
name  to  a  movement?  Himself  a  slave,  he  led 
an  insurrection  of  slaves  against  Eome.  The 
masters  defeated  him  and  killed  him,  and  the 
heads  of  hundreds  of  his  followers  were  impaled 
on  spikes  upon  all  roads  which  led  to  Eome — a 
warning  and  a  witness  to  all  other  slaves  of 
that  and  other  times.  Bitter  and  malignant 
blood-stained  faces  stared  at  the  passers-by 
upon  the  Eoman  highway.  They  stare  still  in 
history,  and  they  stare  to-day,  not  from  pikes, 
but  from  an  infinite  number  of  children  of 
slaves.  Spartacus  lives. 

What  is  called  the  Spartacus  movement  in 
Germany  is  called  Bolshevism  in  Eussia.  Bol- 


266      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

shevism  is  eminently  a  slave  movement.  The 
children  of  the  serfs  have  grasped  everything. 
Its  first  expression  has  been  class  war  and  re 
venge  on  the  master  class.  There  is  so  much  of 
slave  in  the  Bussian  that  his  racial  name  is 
Slav.  Now  comes  ont  all  the  resentment  and 
ill  feeling  of  centuries.  Unlike  the  followers  of 
Spartacus,  the  Eussian  serf  has  triumphed,  and 
instead  of  having  his  head  impaled  he  has  been 
able  to  impale  the  heads  of  his  masters.  From 
his  example  all  slaves  and  children  of  slaves 
throughout  the  world  have  taken  courage.  Kus- 
sian  serfs  and  military  slaves  and  wage  slaves 
and  Negroes  are  finding  an  accord,  and  here  we 
have  the  foundation  for  a  grand  proletarian 
revolutionary  movement  throughout  the  world. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  American  Negroes 
are  not  Bolshevik.  They  are  not  in  name,  but 
they  are  potentially  of  the  same  spirit.  They 
hate  the  white  proletariat  because  the  latter  uses 
them  ill,  but  curiously  enough  they  have  a  com 
mon  cause.  The  leaders  of  the  Negro  forward 
movement  are  almost  exclusively  Bolshevik  in 
spirit.  We  cannot  wonder  at  it.  Persecution 
has  developed  a  great  resentment  and  class- 
hate.  When  the  time  comes,  Dr.  Du  Bois  and 
Johnson  and  Walter  White  and  Pickens  and 
the  rest  will  know  whose  side  they  are  on  in  the 
great  world  struggle. 

There  are  those  who  will  say  that  if  ever  the 
lynching  mob  become  the  victims  of  the  enraged 


THE  NEGBO'S  NEW  MIND         287 

Negroes  no  one  will  shed  tears  but  the  lynchers 
themselves.  They  say  the  lyncher  knows  that  he 
is  wrong  and  has  been  told  so  often  enough. 
Thus,  in  a  pedagogic  way,  think  the  wiseheads 
who  do  not  stray  out  of  doors  when  a  Negro  is 
being  killed.  Thus  think  also  the  governors  of 
the  States,  the  sheriffs,  the  judges,  the  police, 
and  the  law.  But  they  are  fond  and  foolish. 
It  is  not  the  lynching  crowd  on  whom  vengeance 
will  ultimately  be  taken.  The  Negro  mob,  when 
it  rises,  may  easily  join  with  the  lynchers  and 
make  common  cause  against  those  who  should 
have  administered  the  law,  and  against  those 
who  have  stood  idly  by.  In  those  days  we  may 
see  the  ugly  crowd  making  its  way  to  the  Pilate 
governors,  who  so  often  wash  their  hands,  and 
beating  them  to  death  and  burning  their  wives. 
That  is  the  real  movement.  There  is  nothing 
very  reasonable  in  it,  but  the  risen  mob  is  not 
guided  by  logic. 

Resentment  is  the  principal  feeling  of  the 
Negro  soldiers  returned  from  France.  It  is  an 
example  of  how  modern  life,  undirected,  uncon 
trolled,  and  unadvised,  is  manufacturing  ever 
and  ever  more  of  the  dangerous  stuff  of  revo 
lution. 

A  policy  as  to  the  use  of  Negro  citizens  in  the 
Great  "War  was  not  come  to  in  the  United 
States.  Once  more  the  seemingly  unworkable 
theories  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and 
the  Constitution  were  applied  equally  to  the 


268      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Negro  as  to  the  white  man,  as  if  the  Negro  were 
only  a  white  man  with  a  dark  skin.  Negroes 
were  conscripted  equally  with  white  men, 
drilled  and  equipped,  and  sent  to  France,  with 
out  any  regard  to  the  two  vital  questions : 

1.  Is  it  fitting,  and  can  America  condone  the 
use  of  colored  troops  to  fight  white  ene 
mies? 

2.  "When  many  white  citizens  have  such  a 
violent  animus  against  the  Negro,  is  it 
practicable  to  use  the  latter  in  the  army? 

The  first  of  these  questions  was  evaded  by 
America  as  it  had  been  from  the  first  by 
France.  There  are  many  who  think  that  the 
use  of  "native"  troops  against  the  Germans 
was  more  indefensible  than  the  German  use  of 
poison  gas.  For,  by  using  colored  troops  against 
Whites  in  a  white  man's  quarrel,  the  moral 
leadership  of  the  Whites  is  obviously  thrown 
away,  and  there  are  bound  to  be  serious  after 
effects  in  the  weakening  of  morale. 

The  second  question  was  merely  an  important 
practical  detail  that  had  been  overlooked.  Theo 
retically,  all  American  citizens  are  equal.  The 
laws  apply  without  distinction  of  race  or  colon 
In  practice,  equality  is  denied.  What  more  nat 
ural  than  to  continue  in  the  theoretical  assump 
tion  of  equality,  and  hope  that  divergency  in 
practice  might  be  overlooked.  What  more  ab 
surd,  however,  than  to  take  a  man  who  is  being 


THE  NEGBO'S  NEW  MIND         269 

illegally  disfranchised  by  the  community  and 
make  him  fight  for  that  community? 

The  Northern  white  soldier  did  not,  however, 
feel  ill  disposed  toward  the  black  soldier,  and  I 
have  met  those  who  saw  deeds  of  heroism  done 
by  Negroes,  and  many  who  saw  them  wounded 
and  suffering  in  the  common  cause,  and  felt 
drawn  toward  them,  to  help  them  and  their 
brothers.  But  whatever  may  have  been  the  com 
mon  feeling  about  Negro  soldiers  in  the  United 
States,  it  was  definitely  hostile  to  them  in  the 
camps  in  France.  There  emerged  two  charac 
teristic  points  of  view:  (1)  That  it  was  good 
to  kill  off  as  many  Negroes  as  possible,  as  that 
helped  to  solve  the  Negro  problem.  (2)  That  the 
Negro  was  not  worthy  to  fight  for  his  country. 

Not  much  for  patriotism  to  feed  on  there! 
There  seems  never  to  have  been  any  resolve  to 
make  first-class  Negro  regiments,  and  those 
units  who  served  in  France  were  by  no  means 
adequately  trained.  By  all  competent  accounts 
they  were  very  slack,  and  it  goes  without  say- 
Ing  that  an  almost  superhuman  effort  of  disci 
pline  was  necessary  to  obtain  complete  steadi 
ness  in  this  terrible  war.  It  was  common  to 
endeavor  to  terrorize  the  Negroes  by  alarming 
and  exaggerated  accounts  of  the  horrors  of  bat 
tle.  Negroes  were  talked  to  by  Whites  in  a  very 
unsoldiery  way.  Baiting  them  and  scaring  them 
was  thought  to  be  better  sport  than  dealing  with 


270      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

them  sternly  and  seriously.  There  is  no  doubt 
also  that  some  white  soldiers  rejoiced  to  see  the 
Negro  put  back  into  the  slavery  position  and 
forced  to  obey  on  pain  of  death.  There  are  those 
who  cannot  forgive  the  Negro  having  got  free 
from  slavery,  and  for  them  the  spectacle  of  the 
Negro  in  the  rank  and  file  afforded  much  pleas 
ure.  Threating  Negroes  with  a  court-martial 
and  death  sentence  became  a  characteristic  jest. 
The  white  man,  however,  soon  found  that  the 
Negro  fell  into  the  humor  of  the  war  more 
readily  than  into  the  tragedy  of  it.  It  agreed 
with  his  own  sense  of  humor.  It  was  soon  im 
possible  to  scare  the  raw  recruits  with  yarns. 
The  idea  of  running  away  from  a  machine  gun 
became  natural  and  hilarious.  The  dangers 
from  night-bombing  raiders  over  the  lines  were 
facetiously  exaggerated.  Hiding  best  became  a 
humorous  point  of  honor,  and  one  Negro  would 
vaunt  against  another  how  far  he  fled.  Private 
soldiers  chaffed  their  officers  on  the  subject  of 
death.  Asked  what '  'going  over  the  top ' '  meant, 
the  raw  recruit  would  answer:  "I  know;  it 
means  Good  morning  Jesus. "  In  short,  in 
nearly  every  Negro  unit  there  set  in  a  humor- 
esque  attitude  to  the  war. 

Officer:   The  Germans  are  going  to  start 

an  offensive. 

Negro    Soldier:     That    so,    cap?      Then 

we'se  spread  the  news  over  France. 
As  the  popular  joke  has  it. 


THE  NEGKO'S  NEW  MIND        271 

The  Negro  officer  then  began  to  receive  the 
white  man's  attention.  Having  trained  many 
colored  officers,  Negroes  often  of  education  and 
means  and  refinement,  and  having  given  them 
commission  and  uniform,  the  Staff  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  they  had  made  a  mistake.  The 
white  Southern  officer  stirred  up  trouble,  the 
white  ranker  would  not  salute.  There  was  the 
usual  sordid  squabble  in  officers'  messes.  And 
then  the  upshot — a  great  number  of  Negro  offi 
cers  subjected  to  the  humiliation  of  losing  their 
commissions  and  being  placed  in  the  ranks. 
This  discouragement  necessarily  set  the  Negro 
officer  thinking.  It  cultivated  his  resentment. 
It  sowed  in  his  heart  the  seed  of  national 
disaffection. 

The  next  serious  trouble  was  that  of  the 
French  women  and  the  Negro.  The  indifference 
of  white  women  whether  the  man  they  walked 
with  was  black  or  brown  or  white  was  taken  as 
an  intolerable  affront  by  Southerners.  They  felt 
called  upon  to  interfere  and  save  the  French 
woman  from  herself.  The  rape  legend  was  im 
ported,  and  every  effort  was  made  to  infect  the 
French  male  with  race  prejudice.  Happily,  the 
propaganda  failed.  For  one  thing,  Puritanism 
does  not  easily  take  root  in  a  French  heart,  and 
for  another,  the  French  have  no  instinctive  hor 
ror  of  Negroes.  Possibly  the  rape  legend  even 
made  the  Negro  a  little  ornamental  from  the 
point  of  view  of  amour,  "  Black  American 


272      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

troops  in  France  have  given  rise  to  as  many 
complaints  of  attempted  rape  as  all  the  rest  of 
the  army  'Les  troupes  noires  Americaines  en 
France  ont  donne  lieu,  a  elle  seules,  a  autant 
de  plaintes  pour  tentatives  de  viol,  que  tout  le 
reste  de  PArmee,'  :"  as  an  army  order  puts  it. 

Negro  honor,  however,  demands  that  the 
charge  be  rebutted,  and  the  matter  has  been 
thoroughly  investigated.  There  does  not  seem 
to  be  much  in  it.  As  every  one  knows  who 
served  in  the  ranks,  women  of  easy  virtue  were 
extremely  plentiful  and  complaisant.  The  need 
might  easily  have  been  to  protect  the  Negro 
from  the  women  rather  than  the  women  from 
the  Negro. 

The  fact  is  simply  that  the  Negro  walking 
with  a  white  woman  is  to  the  Southern  Ameri 
can  White  as  a  red  rag  to  a  bull.  And  as  by 
nature  this  White  is  unrestrained  and  unrea 
sonable,  he  seeks  by  all  means,  fair  or  foul,  to 
part  them. 

Finally,  the  culmination  of  the  story  of  the 
American  Negro  in  the  war  is  that  the  White 
denied  him  any  valor  or  prowess  or  military 
virtue  of  any  kind,  said  the  Negro  was  a  coward 
and  a  runaway  and  utterly  useless  in  the  fight 
ing  line.  Fighting  units  were  taken  off  their 
allotted  duty  and  changed  to  labor  units.  Regi 
ments  were  ordered  home ;  whole  brigades  were 
given  as  a  present  to  the  grateful  French,  They 


THE  NEGKO'S  NEW  MIND        273 

may  have  been  rather  inefficient.  But,  if  so,  that 
was  due  to  bad  training.  Negroes  have  fought 
magnificently  in  America's  wars  of  the  past. 
They  are  a  great  fighting  race,  and  they  are 
capable  of  discipline. 

I  listened  when  at  New  Orleans  to  a  lecture 
given  by  Sergeant  Needham  Eoberts  of  the 
369th  U.  S.  Infantry,  a  handsome  young  Negro 
warrior,  twice  wounded,  the  first  American  to 
be  decorated  by  the  French  Government.  He 
was  entirely  patriotic,  and  made  the  apathetic 
Negro  audience  stand  to  sing  the  "  Star-Span 
gled  Banner. ' '  He  told  how  he  ran  away  from 
home  to  enlist,  trained  with  a  mass  of  black 
strangers,  went  across  the  ocean — quite  a  terri 
fying  experience  for  some  of  these  young  sol 
diers,  who  but  for  the  war  had  never  crossed 
the  sea.  He  gave  his  first  impressions  of  France 
and  of  the  line,  the  exaggerated  fright  of  shell 
explosions  and  night  attacks  and  bombs  from 
the  air.  They  were  just  getting  used  to  the  first 
aspect  of  war  when  one  day  the  news  flew 
round — "We  are  all  ordered  home  again. " 
Official  orders  to  that  effect  quickly  followed. 
They  had  all  packed  up  and  were  marching  to 
entrain  for  Cherbourg  when,  according  to  the 
sergeant,  Foch  intervened. 

"Why  are  you  sending  them  back?"  said  he. 

"They  are  not  wanted." 

Foch  seemed  astonished. 


274      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

"If  you  cannot  use  them,  I  can,"  said  the 
French  marshal. 

And  then,  hurray! — we  were  attached  to  the 
French. 

It  was  no  playground,  the  French  front,  but, 
as  ever,  a  sterner  piece  of  reality  than  Ameri 
can  or  British.  The  Negroes  were  hotly  en 
gaged  and  had  many  casualties.  Eoberts  won 
his  Croix  de  Guerre  for  a  feat  which  he  per 
formed  with  his  chum,  Pete  Johnson.  They  had 
been  left  at  an  advanced  listening  post  and  ap 
parently  overlooked — not  relieved  for  three 
days  and  three  nights.  The  division  had  been 
relieved.  On  the  third  night  the  Germans  made 
a  raid  which  the  two  Negro  soldiers  repelled  by 
themselves,  first  throwing  out  their  bombs,  then 
firing,  and  finishing  with  a  remarkable  bit  of 
butchery  with  the  bayonet.  The  Germans  whom 
they  did  not  put  out  of  action  they  put  to  flight. 
How  many  Germans  lay  dead  it  would  be  diffi 
cult  to  say.  The  number  probably  grew  like 
those  of  Falstaff  's  men  in  buckram,  but  I  did 
hear  twenty  mentioned. 

There  was  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  Ser 
geant  Eoberts  was  a  jolly  soldier — a  "  bonny 
faechter" — and  he  made  himself  on  good  terms 
with  his  audience  very  quickly.  He  came  from 
New  York,  and  had  swung  along  Fifth  Avenue 
with  the  heroes  of  New  York's  Fighting  Fif 
teenth.  He  was  full  of  the  faith  of  the  North, 
horribly  depressed  by  the  atmosphere  of  the 


THE  NEGRO'S  NEW  MIND         275 

South,  above  all  by  the  passivity  and  apathy  of 
the  Negroes  of  New  Orleans.  He  had  better 
keep  north  of  the  Mason-Dixon  line,  for  he  is 
evidently  a  born  fighter 

If  the  war  itself  was  a  persistent  educator  of 
the  Negro,  his  subsequent  treatment  after  the 
Armistice  enforced  very  terribly  what  lie 
learned.  It  would  be  hardly  worth  while  to  en 
large  on  this  in  detail.  The  fact  which  I  wished 
to  isolate  is  the  growing  resentment  of  the  col 
ored  people,  the  fact  that  some  twelve  millions 
are  becoming  highly  charged  with  resentment. 

As  illustration  of  this  resentment  one  could 
quote  much  from  the  spoken  and  the  written 
word  of  the  Negroes.  But  a  poem,  or  part  of 
a  poem,  may  suffice.  It  is  Archibald  Grimke's 
11  Thirteen  Black  Soldiers."  The  24th  United 
States  Infantry,  a  Negro  regiment,  was  sent  to 
Houston,  Texas,  and  was  received  with  lack  of 
sympathy  and  some  hostility  by  the  population. 
A  series  of  petty  troubles  culminated  in  a  riot 
and  mutiny.  Sixty-four  Negroes  were  court- 
martialled,  and  thirteen  were  sentenced  to 
death,  and  hanged.  It  seems  to  show  a  lack  of 
foresight  to  station  a  Negro  regiment  among 
such  a  hostile  people  as  the  Texans.  They  are 
more' the  enemies  of  the  Negroes  than  were  the 
Germans,  and  there  was  certainty  of  trouble. 
Grimke's  poem  expresses  the  boiling  resent 
ment  to  which  I  have  referred, 


276      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

She  hanged  them,  her  thirteen  black  soldiers, 

She  hanged  them  for  mutiny  and  murder, 

She  hanged  them  after  she  had  put  on  them  her  uniform. 

After  she  had  put  on  them  her  uniform,  the  uniform  of  her 

soldiers, 
She  told  them  they  were  to  be  brave,  to  fight  and,  if  needs 

be,  to  die  for  her. 
This  was  many  years  before  she  hanged  them,  her  thirteen 

black  soldiers. 

She  told  them  to  go  there  and  they  went, 
To  come  here  and  they  came,  her  brave  black  soldiers. 
For  her  they  went  without  food  and  water, 
For  her  they  suffered  cold  and  heat, 
For  her  they  marched  by  day, 
For  her  they  watched  by  night, 
For  her  in  strange  lands  they  stood  fearless, 
For  her  in  strange  lands  they  watched  shelterless. 
For  her  in  strange  lands  they  fought, 
For  her  in  strange  lands  they  bled, 
For  her  they  faced  fevers  and  fierce  men, 
For  her  they  were  always  and  everywhere  ready  to  die. 
And  now  she  has  hanged  them,  her  thirteen  black  soldiers. 
For  murder  and  mutiny  she  hanged  them  in  anger  and  hate, 
Hanged  them  in  secret  and  dark  and  disgrace, 
In  secret  and  dark  she  disowned  them, 
In  secret  and  dark  buried  them  and  left  them  in  nameless 

disgrace. 
Why  did  she  hang  them,  her  thirteen  black  soldiers? 

What  had  they  done  to  merit  such  fate? 

She  sent  them  to  Houston,  to  Houston,  in  Texas, 

She  sent  them  in  her  uniform  to  this  Southern  city, 

She  sent  them,  her  soldiers,  her  thirteen  brave  soldiers, 

They  went  at  her  bidding  to  Houston, 

They  went  where  they  were  ordered. 

They  could  not  choose  another  place, 

For  they  were  soldiers  and  went  where  they  were  ordered. 

They   marched   into  Houston  not  knowing   what   awaited 

them. 

Insult  awaited  them  and  violence. 
Insult  and  violence  hissed  at  them  from  house  windows  and 

struck  at  them  in  the  streets, 
American  colorphobia  hissed  and  struck  at  them  as  they 

passed  by  on  the  streets. 

In  the  street  cars  they  met  discrimination  and  insult, 
"They  are  not  soldiers,  they  and  their  uniforms, 


THE  NEGEO'S  NEW  MIND         277 

They  are  but  common  niggers, 

They  must  be  treated  like  common  niggers, 

They  and  their  uniform." 

So  hissed  colorphobia,  indigenous  to  Texas. 

And  then  it  squirted  its  venom  on  them, 

Squirted  its  venom  on  them  and  on  their  uniform. 

And  what  did  she  do,  she  who  put  that  uniform  on  them, 

And  bade  them  to  do  and  die  if  needs  be  for  her? 

Did  she  raise  an  arm  to  protect  them? 

Did  she  raise  her  voice  to  frighten  away  the  reptilian 

thing? 

Did  she  lift  a  finger  or  say  a  word  of  rebuke  at  it? 
Did  she  do  anything  in  defence  of  her  black  soldiers? 
She  did  nothing.    She  sat  complacent,  indifferent  in  her 

seat  of  power. 
She  had  eyes,  but  she  refused  to  see  what  Houston  was 

doing  to  her  black  soldiers, 
She  had  ears,  but  she  stuffed  them  with  cotton, 
That  she  might  not  hear  the  murmured  rage  of  her  black 

soldiers, 
They  suffered  alone,  they  were  defenceless  against  insult 

and  violence, 
For  she  would  not  see  them  nor  hear  them  nor  protect 

them. 

Then  in  desperation  they  smote  the  reptilian  thing, 
They  smote  it  as  they  had  smitten  before  her  enemies, 
For  was  it  not  her  enemy,  the  reptilian  thing,  as  well  as 

their  own? 

They  in  an  hour  of  madness  smote  it  in  battle  furiously, 
And  it  shrank  back  from  their  blows  hysterical, 
Terror  and  fear  of  death  seized  it,  and  it  cried  unto  her  to 

help. 
And  she,  who  would  not  hear  her  black  soldiers  in  their 

dire  need, 

She,  who  put  her  uniform  on  them,  heard  their  enemy. 
She  flew  at  its  call  and  hanged  her  brave  black  soldiers. 
She  hanged  them  for  doing  for  themselves  what  she  ought 

to  have  done  for  them, 

She  hanged  them  for  resenting  insult  to  her  uniform, 
She  hanged  them  for  defending  from  violence  her  brave 

black  soldiers. 

They  marched  with  the  dignity  of  brave  men  to  the  gallows, 
With  the  souls  of  warriors  they  marched  without  a  whim 
per  to  their  doom. 

And  so  they  were  hanged,  her  thirteen  black  soldiers, 
And  so  they  lie  buried  in  nameless  disgrace, 


278      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Is  the  watchword  of  Dr.  Du  Bois  to  be  won 
dered?— 

We  return. 

We  return  from  fighting. 

We  return  fighting. 

I  met  at  Memphis,  Tennessee,  one  of  the  few 
Southern  white  men  who  are  sympathetic  to  the 
Negro  and  understand  the  gravity  of  the  situa 
tion.  This  was  Mr.  Bolton  Smith,  a  rich  busi 
ness  man,  a  member  of  the  Eotary  Club  quand 
meme.  As  one  who  among  other  activities  ad 
vances  money  on  the  security  of  real  estate  in 
the  Mississippi  Delta,  he  necessarily  has  been 
brought'  a  great  deal  into  contact  with  the 
Negro.  Society  in  Memphis  looked  at  him  some 
what  askance  because  he  did  not  share  the  cur 
rent  conventional  view,  but  he  was  not  black 
balled,  only  indulgently  laughed  at  as  one  who 
had  a  weak  spot  in  his  mental  armor.  In  places 
remote  from  Memphis,  however,  his  views 
receive  weighty  consideration. 

If  he  had  his  way  he  would  give  the  Negro 
his  right  and  his  due,  and  stop  lynching.  He 
does  not  believe  the  Negro  wishes  "social  equal 
ity,"  the  right  to  mix  indiscriminately  with 
white  people,  in  schools,  in  trains,  in  marriage. 
He  thinks  the  Negro  prefers  to  be  separate  as 
long  as  {here  is  no  implied  dishonor.  He  made 
a  special  study  of  the  Frederick  Douglass 
School  at  Cincinnati,  an  all  black  school  which 
is  admirably  conducted,  and  found  that  by 


THE  NEGBO'S  NEW  MIND         279 

themselves  the  Negroes  progress  more  than 
when  mixed  with  Whites.  As  Cincinnati  is  a 
city  on  the  northern  fringe,  with  northern  in 
stitutions,  the  Negroes  had  the  choice  to  go  to 
mixed  schools  with  white  children  if  they  de 
sired,  but  they  preferred  to  be  by  themselves, 
and  indeed  did  better  by  themselves.  As  regards 
Jim  Crow  cars,  Smith  said  he  would  give 
equal  comfort  and  equal  facilities  in  colored 
cars  and  in  colored  waiting  rooms.  He  does  not 
think  the  Negro  desires  to  be  in  a  Pullman  car 
where  there  are  white  women.  It  works  without 
scandal  in  the  North,  but  there  is  too  much  risk 
of  the  woman  going  into  hysterics  in  the  South, 
and  the  Negro  getting  lynched  at  a  wayside  sta 
tion.  He  believes  in  abandoning  "the  policy  of 
pin  pricks, "  and,  above  all,  in  suppressing 
lynching  and  race  riot. 

He  was,  however,  strongly  opposed  to  Du 
Bois  and  the  National  Association.  He  con 
sidered  that  Du  Bois  was  leading  the  Negroes 
wrongly,  leading  them  in  fact  to  a  worse  calam 
ity  than  any  which  had  yet  overtaken  them.  "If 
the  Negro  resorts  to  force,"  said  Mr.  Smith  to 
me,  "he  will  be  destroyed.  In  peace  and  in 
law  the  white  man  fails  to  understand  how  to 
handle  the  Negro,  but  if  it  comes  to  force,  the 
issue  becomes  quite  simple  for  the  white  man, 
and  the  Negro  stands  little  more  chance  than 
a  savage.  Christianity  alone  can  save  the 
Negro,  and  the  leaders  of  the  National  Associa- 


280      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

tion  are  leading  the  people  away  from  Chris 
tianity."  He  wished  all  Negroes  could  see  how 
fatal  it  is  for  them  to  abandon  Christianity. 

"If  it  were  not  for  the  lynchings,  the  National 
Association  and  its  newspaper  would  shrink  to 
very  small  proportions.  Every  time  a  Negro  is 
lynched  it  adds  a  thousand  to  the  circulation  of 
the  Crisis,  and  a  burning  adds  ten  thousand," 
said  he. 

"Hell  would  soon  lose  its  heat  should  sin  ex 
pire,"  said  I.  I  was  inclined  to  agree  that  the 
only  way  was  through  Christianity.  But  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  the  wrath  of  God,  and  it  is 
not  incompatible  with  Divine  Fatherhood  and 
all-merciful  Providence.  John  Brown  has  been 
greatly  condemned,  but  he  was  not  outside 
Christianity — surely  he  was  a  child  of  God.  He 
used  to  think  that  without  much  shedding  of 
blood  the  crimes  of  this  guilty  land  could  be 
purged  away,  but  now  .  .  . 

I  do  not  think  the  white  South  will  be  able 
to  avert  the  wrath  of  God  by  machine  guns,  nor 
will  it  quell  the  Negro  by  force  once  the  Negro 
moves  from  the  depths  of  his  being.  Better  than 
believe  in  meeting  the  great  wrath  is  to  be  ad 
vised  betimes  and  mend  one's  ways.  Was  not 
the  Civil  War  a  sufficient  bloodletting?  Could 
not  the  lesson  be  learned! 

It  is  certainly  in  vain  to  work  directly  against 
Du  Bois  when  his  power  as  a  leader  of  revolt 
could  be  removed  utterly  by  stopping  the  lynch- 


NEGEO  LEADERSHIP  281 

ing.  The  IT.  S.  Postmaster  General  refused 
postal  facilities  to  one  number  of  his  newspaper 
because  it  was  going  too  far  in  stirring  up  sedi 
tion,  but  it  was  ineffectual,  and  was,  on  the  con 
trary,  a  useful  advertisement  for  the  paper. 
And  then,  is  it  not  known  there  are  far  more 
advanced  groups  of  Negroes  than  that  of  the 
association  of  which  Dr.  Du  Bois  is  president? 
There  are  those  who  laugh  Du  Bois  to  scorn 
as  a  Moderate.  There  are  those  who  have  sworn 
that  for  every  Negro  done  to  death  by  the  mob 
two  white  men  shall  somehow  perish.  An  eye 
for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth  is  the  gospel 
— or  rather,  two  eyes  for  one.  Something  is 
being  started  which  will  not  cease  with  a  recital 
of  the  Beatitudes.  If  America  does  not  cast  out 
the  devil  of  class  hate  from  the  midst  of  her  she 
will  again  be  ravished  by  the  Angel  of  Death  as 
in  the  Civil  War.  The  established  peaceful  rou 
tine  of  a  country  like  America  is  very  deceptive. 
All  seems  so  permanent,  so  unshakable.  The 
new  refinement,  the  new  politeness  and  well- 
lined  culture,  and  vast  commercial  organiza 
tion  and  press  suggest  that  no  calamity  could 
overtake  them.  The  force  that  makes  for  dis 
ruption  and  anarchy  is  generated  silently  and 
secretly.  It  accumulates,  accumulates,  and  one 
day  it  must  discharge  itself.  Its  name  is  resent 
ment,  and  its  first  expression  is  revenge. 


XIII 
NEGRO  LEADERSHIP 

DE.  W.  E.  BURGHARDT  Du  Bois,  as  the  leader  of 
the  militant  movement,  is  the  greatest  force 
among  the  Negroes  to-day.  Light  of  skin,  short 
of  stature,  square-headed,  he  would  pass  easily 
in  Southern  Europe  or  in  Russia  as  a  white 
man.  He  looks  rather  like  a  highly  polished 
Jewish  professor.  Considered  carefully,  how 
ever,  it  will  be  realized  that  behind  an  impassive 
mask-like  face  is  an  emotional  and  fiery  nature. 
There  is  a  white  heat  of  resentment  in  him,  and 
a  decision  not  to  forgive.  Possibly  his  devotion 
to  the  cause  and  the  race  drags  him  down  a 
little.  For  he  is  possessed  of  an  unusual  literary 
genius.  The  fire  that  ran  in  the  veins  of  Dumas 
and  of  Pushkin  is  in  him  also,  and  as  a  master 
of  the  written  word  he  stands  entirely  without 
rival  in  the  American  Negro  world.  In  that  re 
spect  he  is  altogether  a  greater  man  than 
Booker  T.  Washington.  The  latter  was  a  prac 
tical  genius,  and  what  is  gall  and  wormwood 
in  the  bosom  of  Du  Bois  was  the  milk  of  human 
kindness  in  his  more  sooty,  natural  breast.  "  I  'm 
going  to  shout ' Glory!7  when  this  world  is  afire, 
and  I  don't  feel  noways  tired,"  he  used  always 

282 


NEGRO  LEADERSHIP  283 

to  be  saying.  "  Booker  T.,"  as  he  is  affection 
ately  called,  was  the  wonderful  colored  baby  of 
the  first  days  of  freedom.  His,  "Up  from 
Slavery,"  which  he  wrote,  and  the  vocational 
institute  of  Tuskegee,  Alabama,  are  the  chief 
monuments  which  he  left  behind  him.  But  his 
portrait  is  almost  as  common  in  Negro  cabins 
as  pictures  of  the  Tsar  used  to  be  in  Russian 
izbas.  "Our  Booker  T.,"  the  Negroes  say  lov 
ingly  and  possessingly,  looking  upon  the  first 
of  their  number  who  rose  from  the  dark  depths 
of  servitude,  first  fruits  of  them  that  slept. 
Freedom  and  Hope  raised  Booker  T.  Washing 
ton,  but  now  he  is  dead  a  new  time  needs  a  new 
leader.  Fain  would  the  Whites  have  "Booker 
T."  back.  The  amenable  Negro  leader  is  much 
more  to  their  taste  than  the  militant  one. 

Many  years  ago  Du  Bois  wrote  "Souls  of 
Black  Folk,"  which  is  a  fascinating  personal 
study.  It  has  a  true  literary  quality  which  raises 
it  from  the  ruck  of  ephemeral  publications  to 
an  enduring  place.  It  is,  however,  immature. 
There  is  an  emphasis  of  personal  culture,  and  a 
note  of  self-pity,  which  a  more  developed  writer 
would  have  been  at  pains  to  transmute.  But 
the  gift  is  unmistakable.  You  perceive  it  again 
and  in  better  measure  in  "Darkwater,"  pub 
lished  this  year. 

It  has  taken  the  war  and  the  recent  increased 
persecution  of  the  Negro  people  to  bring  out 
the  real  power  of  Du  Bois,  As  a  labor  leader 


284      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

said  to  me,  "He  is  first  of  all  a  statesman  and 
a  politician.  He  is  leading  the  Negroes.  I  won 
der  where  he  will  lead  them  to!" 

Certainly  no  other  Negro  in  the  United  States 
is  regarded  by  so  many  others  as  his  leader.  No 
doubt  most  of  the  quiet,  cautious,  and  tradi 
tionally  religious  Negroes  fight  shy  of  him.  But 
they,  for  their  part,  have  no  leader.  Dr.  Moton, 
the  lineal  descendant  of  Booker  Washington  at 
Tuskegee  Institute,  is  only  a  leader  in  the  sense 
that  Dr.  Arnold  of  Rugby  might  be  considered  a 
leader.  He  is  there  in  his  place.  He  is  a  great 
light,  and  is  taken  for  granted. 

In  August,  1919,  Dr.  Moton  wrote  to  the 
President,  warning  him  of  the  growing  ten 
sion: 

"I  want  especially  to  call  your  attention  to 
the  intense  feeling  on  the  part  of  the  colored 
people  throughout  the  country  toward  white 
people,  and  the  apparent  revolutionary  attitude 
of  many  Negroes,  which  shows  itself  in  a  desire 
to  have  justice  at  any  cost.  The  riots  in  Wash 
ington  and  Chicago  and  near  riots  in  many  other 
cities  have  not  surprised  me  in  the  least.  I  pre 
dicted  in  an  address  several  months  ago,  at  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Hampton  Institute, 
on  the  second  of  May — ex-President  Taft  and 
Mr.  George  Foster  Peabody  were  present  at  the 
time — that  this  would  happen  if  the  matter  was 
not  taken  hold  of  vigorously  by  the  thoughtful 
elements  of  both  races. 


NEGEO  LEADEESHIP  285 

"I  think  the  time  is  at  hand,  and  I  think  of 
nothing  that  would  have  a  more  salutary  effect 
on  the  whole  situation  now  than  if  you  should 
in  your  own  wise  way,  as  you  did  a  year  ago, 
make  a  statement  regarding  mob  law;  laying 
especial  stress  on  lynching  and  every  form  of 
injustice  and  unfairness.  You  would  lose  noth 
ing  by  specifically  referring  to  the  lynching  rec 
ord  in  the  past  six  months ;  many  of  them  have 
been  attended  with  unusual  horrors,  and  it 
would  be  easy  to  do  it  now  because  of  the  two 
most  recent  riots  in  the  North,  notably,  Wash 
ington  and  Chicago.  The  South  was  never 
more  ready  to  listen  than  at  present  to  that 
kind  of  advice,  and  it  would  have  a  tremen 
dously  stabilizing  effect,  as  I  have  said,  on  the 
members  of  my  race. 

"You  very  probably  saw  the  account  of  the 
lynching  in  Georgia  of  an  old  colored  man  sev 
enty  years  of  age,  who  shot  one  of  two  intoxi 
cated  white  men  in  his  attempt  to  protect  two 
colored  girls  who  had  been  commanded  to  come 
out  of  their  home  in  the  night  by  these  two 
men.  The  colored  man  killed  the  white  man 
after  he  had  been  shot  by  one  of  the  white  men 
because  he  had  simply  protested. 

"I  am  enclosing  the  lynching  record  for  the 
past  six  months  and  an  editorial  from  the 
Atlanta  Constitution,  which  strongly  denounces 
mob  violence. 

"With  all  kind  wishes,  and  assuring  you  of 


286      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

no  desire  to  add  to  your  burdens,  but  simply 
to  call  attention  to  what  seems  to  me  vital  not 
only  for  the  interest  of  the  twelve  millions  of 
black  people,  but  equally  as  important  for  the 
welfare  of  the  millions  of  Whites  whom  they 
touch,  I  am, 

"Very  sincerely  and  gratefully, 

"B.  E.  MOTON." 

In   reply   to   this   letter,   President  Wilson 
wrote  Dr.  Moton  as  follows : 
"My  dear  Dr.  Moton: 

* '  Thank  you  sincerely  for  your  letter  of  Au 
gust  eighth.  It  conveys  information  and  sug 
gestions,  the  importance  of  which  I  fully  realize 
and  for  which  I  am  sincerely  obliged.  I  will 
take  the  suggestions  you  make  under  very  seri 
ous  consideration,  because  I  realize  how  crit 
ical  the  situation  has  become  and  how  impor 
tant  it  is  to  steady  affairs  in  every  possible  way. 

"Again  thanking  you  for  your  public-spirited 
co-operation, 

1 1  Cordially  and  sincerely  yours, 

"WOODROW  WILSON.  " 

With  this  conventional  reply  the  matter 
closes,  and  things  in  America  became  steadily 
worse  in  the  months  which  followed.  The  twi 
light  peace  of  Tuskegee  has  been  in  contrast 
with  the  loud,  clamorous  denunciations  from 


NEGRO  LEADERSHIP  287 

Ur.  Du  Bois.  For  Du  Bois  gives  forth  new 
words  of  leadership  each  month.  He  has  a  voice 
like  a  trumpet  and  must  be  heard.  Therefore, 
he  is  the  leader. 

Associated  with  him  are  many  brilliant  men 
of  whom  the  most  powerful  is  the  poet  and 
orator,  James  Welldon  Johnson,  a  darker  man 
than  Du  Bois,  slender  and  taller.  He  is  ener 
getic,  and  may  constantly  be  heard  from  plat 
forms  in  New  York  and  elsewhere.  I  heard  him 
speak.  I  was  not  moved  by  him  as  by  Dean 
Pickens,  but  he  is  more  intense  and  has  the 
reputation  of  extraordinary  brilliance  at  times. 

If  the  persecution  were  lifted  from  off  the 
Negro  race  there  would  doubtless  be  room  for 
quiet  educational  leadership,  and  flamboyancy 
would  fail.  White  sympathizers  such  as  Mr. 
Bolton  Smith  of  Memphis  emphasize  the  value 
of  the  quieter,  more  unobtrusive  work  done  in 
places  like  Piney  Woods  School,  the  Frederick 
Douglass  School,  by  Laurence  Jones  and  Prin 
cipal  Russell.  But  of  course  peaceful  growth  is 
impossible  until  the  mass  of  the  people  are 
guaranteed  against  the  present  terrifying  mob 
violence  and  general  social  injustice. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  does  not  follow  that 
Du  Bois  is  a  new  Moses  leading  his  people  to  a 
Promised  Land.  He  may  be  leading  them  to 
terrific  bloodshed  and  slaughter.  He  may  be 
leading  them  to  a  complete  racial  fiasco,  not 
because  he  wants  to  do  so  or  can  do  otherwise, 


288      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BKOWN 

but  because  perhaps  that  fiasco  is  written  on 
the  American  Negro's  card  of  destiny. 

The  Negroes  are  arming  themselves.  They 
are  more  ready  to  retaliate — to  quote  a  letter 
from  Memphis:  " There  is  an  increased  deter 
mination  on  the  part  of  great  numbers  of 
Negroes  to  defend  their  rights  by  force.  .  . .  The 
Negro  is  emotional,  and  the  masses  of  them  are 
quite  ready  to  think  they  are  oppressed  in  mat 
ters  in  which  they  are  not  oppressed  at  all,  and 
therefore  to  use  force  on  unjustifiable  occasions. 
This  shows  itself  in  the  increased  use  of  fire 
arms  by  petty  thieves  against  the  police.  A 
Negro  was  arrested  here  recently  on  the  charge 
of  selling  stolen  chickens.  His  home  was  known. 
It  was  inconceivable  that  the  ordinary  white 
petty  thief  would  shoot  officers  of  the  law  in 
order  to  prevent  an  arrest  which  probably  would 
have  resulted  in  a  comparatively  small  punish 
ment,  but  this  man  murdered  an  officer  and  is 
to  be  hung.  The  same  thing  has  occurred  here 
several  times.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is 
difficult  to  induce  the  police  to  hold  the  proper 
attitude  toward  the  Negro.  They  never  know 
when  he  is  going  to  shoot,  and  so  it  is  natural 
that  they  should  shoot  a  Negro  much  quicker 
than  they  would  a  white  man.  This  begets  in 
its  turn  a  feeling  of  resentment  which  makes 
the  relations  between  the  Negro  and  the  police 
more  difficult.  I  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly 
the  fact  that  when  a  minority  tries  to  protect 


THE  WORLD  ASPECT  289 

itself — although  it  may  use  only  the  weapons 
which  the  majority  in  the  past  has  been  accus 
tomed  to  use  in  defending  itself  against  tyranny, 
the  minority  is  apt  to  find  itself  condemned 
in  the  eyes  of  the  public.  Take  the  attitude 
which  the  mass  of  Americans  are  occupying 
with  reference  to  the  Beds  and  their  deporta 
tion.  ...  A  small  number  of  the  Eeds  have 
appealed  to  force — the  whole  crowd  are  more 
or  less  outlawed  by  American  public  opinion. 
"What  I  am  apprehensive  of  if  the  Negroes  con 
tinue  to  follow  Du  Bois  is  just  such  an  embit- 
terment  of  relations  between  the  two  races.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  race  relation  in  Chicago 
is  the  better  for  the  race  riot.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  Europe,  every  revolution  usually 
resulted  sooner  or  later  in  greater  freedom 
even  where  the  revolution  was  suppressed.  My 
experience  with  Negro  uprisings  has  been  pre 
cisely  the  reverse.  Such  progress  as  the  Negro 
has  made  has  been  by  education  and  the  awak 
ening  of  the  conscience  of  the  white  man. 

6 '  To  put  the  matter  in  a  few  words,  the  prob 
lem  that  I  would  like  immensely  to  emphasize 
to  you,  is  the  wholly  abnormal  position  of  the 
minority  seeking  its  rights.  We  are  apt  to 
think  that  the  Negro  can  achieve  these  rights  in 
the  way  that  our  ancestors  achieved  theirs 
against  the  aristocracy,  but  unless  I  am  utterly 
wrong,  that  view  is  doomed  to  failure  and  if 
followed  will  result  in  embittering  the  relations 


290      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

between  the  races  so  that  segregation  or 
deportation  or  extermination  must  result.  Per 
sonally  I  do  not  believe  that  we  will  fail,  but  if 
we  succeed  it  will  be  in  spite  of  Du  Bois  and  of 
the  attitude  of  armed  resistance.  Never  was  a 
better  illustration  of  the  wisdom  under  certain 
conditions  of  the  Tolstoi  attitude  of  non-resist 
ance." 

That  of  course  is  nicely  deduced,  but  events 
are  not  ruled  by  wisdom  and  logic.  It  might 
very  well  have  been  said  to  the  Israelites  dur 
ing  the  long  period  of  the  Plagues.  It  is  such 
a  period  in  the  history  of  the  Negroes. 


XIV 
THE  WOELD  ASPECT 

THE  American  Negroes  are  the  aristocrats  of 
the  Negro  world.  It  may  be  a  paradox  to 
assume  that  a  proletariat  can  become  an  aristoc 
racy,  but  an  aristocracy  is  the  best  a  race  can 
produce  in  culture  and  manners.  No  doubt  Afri 
can  Negrodom  is  made  up  of  a  great  number 
of  races,  but  all  seem  to  have  one  common  inter 
est  and  to  yield  more  homage  to  the  name  of 
Africa  itself  than  to  any  constituent  part,  king 
dom,  or  state  or  pasture.  The  American  Negra 
is  beginning  to  lead  Africa  as  he  is  leading  the 
Indies.  The  reason  is  that  the  children  of  the 
American  slaves  have  made  the  greatest  cul 
tural  progress  of  all  Negroes.  Though  perse 
cution  has  been  less  in  some  parts  of  Africa 
and  on  the  West  Indian  islands,  opportunity 
has  also  been  less.  In  1863  America  committed 
herself  to  the  task  of  raising  her  millions  of 
black  slaves  to  the  cultural  level  of  white  citi 
zenship.  But  no  one  has  ever  essayed  to  raise 
the  savage  masses  of  Africa  much  higher  than 
the  baptismal  font.  It  is  always  pointed  out  to 
the  American  Negro  that  his  good  fortune  is 
prodigious.  The  Negro  retorts  that  if  he  has 

291 


292      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BKOWN 

good  fortune  his  fathers  paid  for  it  in  the  suf 
ferings  of  slavery,  and  he  still  pays  in  the  price 
of  lynching.  Yet,  of  course,  the  Negroes  in 
Africa  have  suffered  greatly,  and  their  fathers 
suffered  greatly.  No  Negro  can  deny  that  he 
owes  America  much.  And  Africa  owes,  or  will 
ewe,  more  still. 

In  America  the  door  at  least  stands  open  for 
Negro  progress.  In  Africa,  and  especially  in 
South  Africa,  it  is  not  quite  certain  that  the 
door  is  not  closed.  If  the  door  remains  ajar  it 
is  not  because  the  white  man  wills  it,  hut 
because  the  American  Negro  has  got  his  foot  in. 
A  low  Commercial-Imperial  idea  reigns.  The 
native  is,  "the  labor  on  the  spot."  An  unfail 
ing  supply  of  cheap  native  labor  is  considered 
the  great  desideratum.  Attempts  on  the  Negro  rs 
part  to  raise  himself  by  education  or  by 
technical  skill  are  looked  upon  with  suspicion, 
and  one  must  remember  that  as  far  as  the  Brit 
ish  Empire  or  French  or  Belgian  mandatoria! 
regions  are  concerned  there  are  no  institutions 
in  Africa  comparable  to  Tuskegee  and  Hamp 
ton.  If  the  labor  unions  in  the  United  States 
are  foolishly  antagonistic  to  the  progress  of 
Negro  skilled  labor,  they  are  twice  more  so  in 
South  Africa.  If  there  is  peonage  in  America 
there  is  an  abundance  of  pseudo  slavery  in 
Africa,  and  while  the  American  trolley  car  has 
its  Jim  Crow  section  the  South  African  one 
often  has  not  even  that,  and  the  Negro  must 


THE  WOELD  ASPECT  293 

walk  unless  accompanied  by  white  employer.  An 
open  hostility  has  arisen  between  Black  and 
White  which  much  resembles  that  of  the  South 
ern  States  of  America.  If  it  were  not  for  the 
leadership  of  the  American  Negroes  it  would 
not  be  promising  for  Negrodom  as  a  whole. 

Of  course  there  is  a  vital  difference  between 
the  British  Empire  and  the  United  States ;  the 
people  of  the  empire  are  subjects,  and  of  the 
republic  they  are  citizens.  "While  Britain 
technically  rules  her  four  hundred  million  col 
ored  subjects  from  above  downward  America 
theoretically  holds  that  all  her  people  are  free 
and  equal.  The  American  ideal  is  higher,  the 
British  more  practical. 

There  is  another  difference,  and  it  is  that  our 
Blacks,  except  in  the  Indies,  are  mostly  indige 
nous,  and  have  not  been  transplanted  from  their 
native  wilds.  They  have  not  been  slaves  and 
have  not  the  slave  psychology.  In  Africa  the 
white  man  is  in  contact  with  masses  of  natives 
In  a  primitive  condition;  in  the  United  States 
the  Negro  has  been  definitely  cut  off  from  his 
Mth  and  kin.  The  American  Negro  was  set 
free  in  a  land  rampant  with  democratic  ideals 
and  possessed  of  a  sublime  belief  in  human 
progress.  But  Africa  has  been  and  is  increas 
ingly  a  commercial  domain  whose  only  function 
from  the  modern  white  man's  point  of  view  is 
the  making  of  material  fortune.  The  white  man 
in  Africa  is  much  more  exclusively  a  dollar 


294      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

hunter  than  the  American.  And  though  Britain 
has  been  much  praised  for  letting  South  Africa 
govern  herself  it  does  not  seem  as  if  the  Union 
was  making  much  progress  in  ideals  and  cul 
ture.  The  King  of  England  was  a  better  friend 
to  the  native  than  the  local  government  is  prov 
ing  itself  to  be. 

A  blatant  anti-nigger  tendency  is  growing 
throughout  the  British  Empire,  and  it  is  very 
vulgar,  very  undignified,  and  at  the  same  time 
disgraceful.  It  applies  to  India  and  Egypt  as 
much  as  to  Africa.  It  is  due  perhaps  to  a  gen 
eral  deterioration  in  education  and  training. 
One  may  remark  that  those  who  complain  of  the 
ways  of  their  servants  are  generally  unfitted  to 
have  servants,  and  it  is  characteristic  of  par 
venus  to  ill  treat  those  beneath  them,  and  I 
would  say  if  a  white  man  cannot  get  on  well 
with  a  Negro  it  is  a  sign  that  he  is  not  a  gentle 
man.  But  the  genuine  type  of  English  gentle 
man  is  passing.  To  think  that  the  race  of  Liv 
ingstone  and  Stanley  and  Harry  Johnston 
should  be  pitifully  complaining  about  the 
Negroes,  as  if  God  had  not  made  them  aright! 

The  British  people  used  to  be  able  to  manage 
native  races  well — in  the  age  of  the  Victorian, 
when  the  Englishman  could  treat  his  native 
servant  as  if  he  were  a  gentleman  also,  never 
doubting  that  in  God's  sight  an  equal  dignity 
invested  both  master  and  man.  Eead  the 
memoirs  andi  letters  of  colonial  people  of  time 


THE  WORLD  ASPECT  295 

past,  and  then  compare  with  the  current  noisy 
prejudice  in  India  and  Africa.  The  falling 
away  is  appalling.  And  the  "natives"  know 
the  change  which  has  been  coming  about — the 
new  type  of  officer  and  employer,  the  man  with 
the  whisky  brain,  the  mind  stocked  with  music- 
hall  funniosity  and  pseudo  cynicism,  the  grum 
bler,  the  man  who  expects  everything  to  have 
been  arranged  for  his  comfort  and  success  be 
forehand.  Astonishing  to  hear  young  officers 
calling  even  Hindoos  and  Syrians  and  Arabs 
niggers!  The  native  instinctively  knows  the 
man  of  restraint  and  good  manners  and  human 
dignity  and  properly  trained  unselfishness. 
The  lowest  coolie  can  tell  the  difference  between 
a  gentleman  and  a  cad;  and  the  educated  col 
ored  man,  while  he  respects  in  the  deepest  way 
the  nation  of  Shakespeare  and  Burke  and  Wel 
lington  and  Gordon,  is  puzzled  to  find  a  com 
mon  spirit  in  the  English-speaking  people  of 
to-day. 

"I  was  reared  in  an  atmosphere  of  admira 
tion — almost  of  veneration — for  England," 
says  Dr.  Du  Bois.  "I  had  always  looked  on 
England  as  the  best  administrator  of  colored 
peoples,  and  laid  her  success  to  her  system  of 
justice,"  but  he  wavers  in  that  faith  now,  hav 
ing  heard  the  new  story  of  Hindoos  and  Arabs 
and  the  Negroes  of  South  Africa  and  Negroes 
of  West  Africa. 

In  converse  with  Professor  Hoffmann  in  New 


296      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

Orleans,  a  British  subject  formerly  in  the  serv 
ice  of  the  British  Government  in  Northern 
Nigeria,  an  extremely  capable  and  enlightened 
Negro,  now  head  master  of  a  colored  school,  I 
found  confirmation  of  this.  His  impression  of 
the  change  of  spirit  in  the  empire  was  similar 
to  that  expressed  by  Du  Bois,  and  I  found  ad 
miration  of  British  rule  giving  way  to  doubt  in 
many  Negro  minds.  Indeed  it  has  been  pos 
sible  for  American  Anglophobes  to  do  a  good 
deal  of  propaganda  among  the  Negroes  by  rep 
resenting  how  badly  the  natives  now  fare  under 
British  rule.  There  is  some  exaggeration  in 
this  respect,  but  it  makes  an  important  impres 
sion  on  the  mind  of  the  American  Negro.  He 
has  begun  to  feel  a  care  and  an  anxiety  for  the 
condition  of  his  brethren  overseas.  The  edu 
cated  Negro  of  the  United  States  now  feels  a 
responsibility  toward  the  African  Negro,  and 
also  toward  all  dark-skinned  people  whatso 
ever. 

The  assumption  by  the  Negro  of  a  common 
ground  with  the  natives  of  India  is  somewhat 
surprising  and  amusing.  There  is  no  ethnolog 
ical  common  ground.  But  the  color  bar  of  the 
British  Empire  applies  almost  as  stringently 
to  the  Indians  as  to  the  Negroes.  " We'll  smash 
them  all  to  hell,"  says  a  bellicose  Negro 
stranger  to  a  young  Hindoo  student  at  Wash 
ington,  much  to  the  astonishment  of  the  latter. 


THE  WOBLD  ASPECT  297 

The  advanced  Negroes  of  America  place  the 
liberation  of  the  peoples  of  India  and  Egypt  in 
the  very  foreground  of  their  world  policy.  They 
say  also  that  the  natives  of  South  Africa  must 
be  delivered  from  the  Union  of  South  Africa. 

One  thing  is  certain,  and  that  is  that  the  Brit 
ish  Empire  will  not  hold  together  for  long  un 
less  the  Whites  can  manage  the  Blacks,  and  up 
hold  the  standard  of  justice  which  was  for 
merly  lived  by.  Votes  are  not  necessary,  but 
ordinary  human  rights  of  free  existence  and  op 
portunity  are  necessary.  The  empire  is  at  the 
crossroads.  It  is  a  question  whether  it  can  be 
held  together  by  good  will,  or  whether  Britain 
will  be  forced  to  inaugurate  a  rule  of  force  and 
obedience.  The  old  conception  of  good  will  is 
being  tested  in  South  Africa  and  Egypt  and 
India  as  it  is  in  Ireland.  Possibly  as  a  result  of 
the  war,  political  circumstances  may  force  it 
back  to  the  ideal  of  force  and  a  paramount  cen 
tral  authority.  The  belief  of  native  races  in 
the  King,  and  their  hatred  of  the  King's  inter 
mediaries,  is  characteristic  of  the  time.  The 
American  Negro  is  keeping  a  sharp  lookout  on 
the  lot  of  colored  people  within  the  British  Em 
pire.  As  he  leads  in  intelligence,  in  ideals,  and 
in  material  wealth,  he  intends  to  missionarize 
the  native  world  in  the  name  of  civilization.  The 
missionaries  are  called  agitators;  their  press 
seditious ;  their  ideals  dangerous ;  but  words  do 


298      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

not  alter  the  fact  that  the  flag  of  Pan- African 
unity  has  been  raised,  and  the  common  needs  of 
all  dark-skinned  races  have  been  mooted. 

The  Republic  of  Liberia  has  often  been  dis 
missed  as  a  failure,  by  the  white  man.  But  it  is 
destined  to  be  America's  advanced  post  in 
Africa  for  Black  civilizing  Black.  I  was  fortu 
nate  in  meeting  in  America  Bishop  Lloyd,  just 
returned  from  Liberia,  and  he  gave  a  very  inter 
esting  account  of  the  positive  side  of  develop 
ment  there.  First  of  all  the  American  Negro  is 
the  elite,  the  aristocracy  of  Liberia.  He  is  tak 
ing  upon  himself  the  immense  task  of  educa 
ting  the  Negro  masses  of  the  interior.  In  this 
and  in  commerce  and  in  the  establishment  of 
law  and  order,  Liberia  is  very  successful. 
America  and  American  ideals  are  a  gospel  to 
the  Liberian  Negroes.  Never  a  word  is  said  of 
the  injustices  and  sufferings  which  attend 
Negro  life  in  the  States,  but  on  the  contrary 
America  is  regarded  as  a  Negro  Paradise.  When 
America  declared  war  on  Germany  it  was  the 
joy  of  Liberia  to  declare  war  also,  and  her  war 
effort  was  remarkable. 

It  is  somewhat  curious  that  while  British 
difficulties  with  native  races  obtain  large  adver 
tisement  in  the  United  States  and  elsewhere, 
the  lynchings  and  burnings  and  rac0*  riots  of 
America  are  in  general  successfully  hushed  up 
within  the  States  where  they  occur.  But  of 
course  the  American  Negro  is  very  proud  of  the 


THE  WOBLD  ASPECT  299 

America  which  he  feels  he  helped  in  no  small 
way  to  make.  America  has  given  the  Negro  an 
ideal,  and  she  is  to  him  religion.  All  that  is 
new  in  the  Negro  movement,  moreover,  takes 
its  rise  from  America. 

We  have  seen  inaugurated  in  New  York  re 
cently  the  so-called  " Black  Star  Line,"  a  line 
of  steamships  owned  by  Negroes,  and  manned 
by  Negroes.  Its  object  is  to  trade  with  Negro 
communities,  and  advance  the  common  inter 
ests  of  the  dark-skinned  people  throughout  the 
•world.  Whether  it  is  destined  to  succeed  de 
pends  on  the  soundness  of  its  financial  backing. 
But  it  is  an  interesting  adventure.  Its  first 
ship  out  of  New  York  carried  out  the  last  cargo 
of  whisky  before  "  Prohibition "  set  in.  A 
storm  forced  the  vessel  back  to  port  after  the 
port  had  become  legally  "dry,"  and  some 
thought  the  cargo  would  be  seized.  It  was  said 
there  were  many  leaks  to  the  ship,  but  after 
many  parleys  and  reconnaissances  with  white 
officials  the  Yarmouth,  afterwards  named 
Frederick  Douglass,  got  away. 

It  is  generally  advertised  under  the  caption 
"OVEB  THE  TOP— FOB  WHAT?"  and 
was  started  by  a  Negro  orator  called  the  Hon. 
Marcus  Garvey.  He  founded  a  society  known 
as  The  Universal  Negro  Improvement  Associa 
tion  which  boasts  now  a  membership  of  over 
two  millions  in  America,  Africa,  and  the  Indies. 
This  is  a  militant  organization,  But  its  mem- 


300      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

bership  is  evidently  useful  as  a  ready-to-hand 
investing  public  who  can  be  persuaded  to  put 
its  money  into  a  whole  series  of  Negro  business 
enterprises,  such  as  "The  Negro  Factories 
Corporation, "  "West  Indies  Trading  Associa 
tion  of  Canada/'  and,  of  course,  the  Black  Star 
Line.  The  association  has  its  organ,  "The 
Negro  World/'  and  it  meets,  as  far  as  New 
York  is  concerned,  at  a  place  called  popularly 
"The  Subway  Church,"  between  Seventh  and 
Lenox  Avenues.  Whites  are  not  wanted,  and 
indeed  not  admitted,  but  the  crowds  are  so  huge 
it  is  possible  to  slip  in.  Musical  features  alter 
nate  with  impassioned  oratory.  Whether,  like 
a  bubble  blown  from  the  soap  of  commerce  and 
the  water  and  air  of  humanitarianism,  this  will 
burst  and  let  the  members  down,  or  whether  it 
is  sound  and  genuine,  it  is  at  least  instructive 
and  interesting  in  its  developments.  The  lec 
turers  and  speakers  choose  the  largest  terms  of 
thought,  and  visualize  always  some  four  hun 
dred  millions  of  colored  brethren  throughout 
the  world.  A  universal  convention  is  even  to 
be  called. 

How  the  Yarmouth  fared  with  the  rest  of 
her  "wet  cargo"  during  its  six  months'  trip 
has  not  been  made  public,  but  the  Negroes 
hailed  the  progress  of  the  vessel  as  a  "diplo 
matic  triumph,"  and  when  it  returned  to  New 
York  an  accession  of  25,000  new  members  was 
announced,  Five  thousand  in  Cuba,  two  thou- 


THE  WORLD  ASPECT  301 

sand  five  hundred  in  Jamaica,  eight  thousand  in 
Panama,  seven  thousand  in  Bocas  del  Toro  and 
Port  Limon ;  the  staff  of  the  ship  and  its  ' l  am 
bassadors  "  were  feted  on  their  return.  All  made 
speeches,  and  all  were  greeted  with  the  greatest 
enthusiasm.  Thus,  at  the  "Star  Casino "  one 
of  the  ambassadors  described  the  arrival  at 
Jamaica : 

"At  last  we  came  in  sight  of  the  emerald  isle 
of  the  Caribbean  Sea — that  beautiful  island 
that  is  ever  green — that  wonderful  island 
Jamaica;  and  dear  indeed  is  the  island  of 
Jamaica  to  me.  With  pleasure  I  saw  the  people 
as  they  crowded  along  the  docks  to  catch  the 
first  view  of  our  steamer,  the  'first  ship  of 
the  Black  Star  Line.  I  could  hear  the  hurrahs 
and  the  huzzahs  as  she  majestically  wended  her 
way  up  to  Port  Eoyal.  We  had  taken  on  board 
our  Negro  pilot,  who  piloted  us  into  the  harbor 
of  Kingston,  one  of  the  finest  harbors  of  the 
world.  As  she  sped  along,  the  people  of  Kings 
ton  were  running  down  the  streets  in  order  that 
they  might  catch  a  sight  of  the  Yarmouth.  We 
steamed  to  the  dock  and  they  came  on  board. 
They  did  not  wait  for  invitation  to  the  cap 
tain's  cabin,  but  came  up  to  the  wheelhouse, 
they  came  into  the  chart  room,  they  invaded 
every  portion  of  the  ship.  ...  On  the  second 
night  after  our  arrival  a  grand  reception  was 
arranged. ' ' 

The  ship  made  a  triumphal  entry  wherever 


302      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

she  arrived.  At  one  port  where  the  ropes  were 
thrown  out  from  the  ship,  the  Negroes  seized 
them,  pulled  her  alongside  the  dock  of  a  fruit 
company,  and  then  with  their  hands  pulled  the 
vessel  itself  the  entire  length  of  the  quay.  No 
one  had  ever  seen  the  like,  but  the  Blacks 
wanted  to  feel  it  with  their  hands — their  own 
ship. 

This  was  strictly  a  new-world  voyage,  and  a 
comparatively  easy  one,  with  plenty  of  passen 
gers  and  of  freight.  The  cry  is  for  more  ships 
and  bigger  enterprise,  and  if  the  company  makes 
good  Africa  will  no  doubt  see  Africa  come  rid 
ing  toward  itself  on  the  waves.  It  is  possible, 
however,  that  the  Whites  of  Africa  may  prove 
more  hostile  than  those  of  the  easy-going  States 
of  South  America  and  the  Indies.  The  news  of 
the  Negro  line  is  no  doubt  very  rousing  for  all 
intelligent  colored  people. 

What  in  reality  is  Black  Internationalism  is 
hardly  realized  as  yet,  especially  by  Great  Brit 
ain.  Anything  said  against  the  Negroes  is 
heard  by  a  vast  number  of  educated  and  intelli 
gent  colored  people.  Thus  you  find  the  words  of 
the  Germanophile  E.  D.  Morel  used  to  stir  the 
masses  against  Britain.  Says  Morel,  according 
to  the  Negroes : l '  The  results  of  installing  black 
barbarians  among  European  communities  are 
inevitable.  .  .  .  The  African  is  the  most  de 
veloped  sexually  of  any.  .  .  .  Sexually,  they  are 
unrestrained  and  unrestrainable*  That  is  per- 


THE  WOELD  ASPECT  303 

f  ectly  well  known.  .  .  .  For  the  working  classes 
the  importation  of  Negro  mercenaries  by  the 
hundred  thousand  from  the  heart  of  Africa  to 
fight  the  battles  and  execute  the  lusts  of  capital 
ist  governments  in  the  heart  of  Europe  is  a 
terrific  portent.  The  workers  alike  of  Britain, 
France,  and  Italy  will  be  ill  advised  if  they 
allow  it  to  pass  in  silence."  And  when  the  Daily 
Herald  says  that  "  Wherever  there  are  black 
troops  who  have  been  long  distant  from  their 
own  womenfolk  there  follows  a  ghastly  out 
break  of  prostitution,  rape,  and  syphilis"  it  is 
necessarily  treated  as  a  slur  by  Negroes.  A 
Negro  writer  who  protested  in  a  well-written 
and  cogent  letter  to  that  newspaper  fails  to  get 
his  letter  printed,  but  he  prints  it  all  right  in 
the  Negro  press  of  America,  and  asks,  "Why 
this  obscene  maniacal  outburst  about  the  sex- 
vitality  of  black  men  in  a  proletarian  paper?" 
If  there  is  a  race  riot  as  at  Cardiff  or  Liver 
pool,  or  if  a  scheme  is  mooted  to  dispossess  the 
squatters  of  Ehodesia  of  more  of  their  land,  or 
a  General  Dyer  machine-guns  a  crowd  of  civil 
ians  in  the  name  of  keeping  order  in  India — it 
is  absurd  to  think  of  the  matter  locally  and 
provincially.  It  is  discussed  throughout  the 
world.  It  is  impossible  to  act  now  as  if  the  sub 
ject  races  had  no  collective  consciousness. 

So  much  for  the  point  of  view  of  the  world 
outside  America.    There  is   another  point  of 


304      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

view  which  is  perhaps  closer  to  those  subjects 
specially  treated  in  this  volume.  What  the 
world  does  to  the  native  and  says  of  him  are 
known  in  America.  America  has  power  to  help 
the  native  races  of  dark  color  throughout  the 
world,  and  many  Americans,  white  as  well  as 
dark,  are  willing  to  do  so.  But  there  is  one  very 
serious  difficulty,  and  that  is  the  moral  sanc 
tion. 

While  those  things  occur;  such  as  burning 
Negroes  at  the  stake  and  denying  them  the 
equable  justice  of  a  true  Court  of  Law,  Amer 
ica  has  no  right  to  speak ;  her  truly  grand  ideal 
ism  is  rendered  almost  wholly  impotent.  It  was 
the  same  in  the  promulgation  of  the  League  of 
Nations  and  the  idea  of  helping  small  nations ; 
it  is  the  same  with  regard  to  American  inter 
ference,  in  the  name  of  human  rights  and 
ideals,  in  the  Irish  question.  It  can  always  be 
objected:  Why  do  you  not  look  after  your  own 
subjects  first,  and  save  your  Negroes?  An 
American  said  to  me  in  Philadelphia:  "I  am 
not  overfond  of  the  Bolsheviks,  but  of  one  thing 
I  am  glad — The  red  hand  of  the  Tsar  will  never 
rule  again." 

No? 

And  another  said:  " Thank  God  the  pogroms 
are  over." 

Are  they? 

And  a  third  said:  "I  am  sorry  America  re 
fused  to  take  a  mandate  for  Armenia. " 


THE  WOELD  ASPECT  305 

But  why  not  take  a  mandate  for  Georgia  and 
Mississippi? 

In  1919,  when  the  question  of  American  dele 
gations  to  Ireland  was  being  discussed,  a  mem 
ber  in  the  British  House  of  Commons  asked  if 
a  British  delegation  could  not  be  sent  to  Amer 
ica  to  investigate  conditions  among  the 
Negroes. 

Mr.  Bonar  Law  thought  that  a  very  humorous 
suggestion.  The  very  humor  of  it  was  sufficient 
answer  to  America.  No  need  for  Britain  to 
send  investigators. 

As  long  as  America  with  her  ideals  was 
enough  unto  herself  the  Negro  question  was 
strictly  her  affair.  But  when  she  takes  the 
moral  leadership  of  the  civilized  world  it  be 
comes  to  a  certain  extent  every  one's  affair. 

The  point  is  that  America  as  a  whole  cannot 
afford  to  tolerate  what  is  done  locally  in  par 
ticular  States.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  non-inter 
ference  from  Washington  in  the  local  affairs  of 
Georgia  and  Mississippi  and  the  rest.  The  bale 
ful  happenings  in  these  States  rob  Americans 
in  other  States  of  their  good  name,  and  spoil 
America's  reputation  in  the  world.  The  fact 
that  the  terms  of  the  Constitution  are  not  car 
ried  out,  decreases  throughout  the  value  of  the 
American  citizenship.  And  the  'growing  scan 
dal  causes  America's  opinions  on  world  politics 
to  be  seriously  discounted. 


306      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

Thus  though  America  was  antipathetic  to  the 
old  Tsarist  regime,  and  still  talks  of  the 
"bloody  Tsar,"  it  is  a  fact  growing  daily  more 
obvious  that  compared  with  the  present  regime 
of  the  great  republic  the  rule  of  the  Tsar  over 
his  subject  races  was  in  some  ways  better.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  American  press  has  lately 
been  flooded  with  the  atrocities  of  the  Bolshe 
viks.  The  fact  is,  we,  all  of  us,  believe  evil  read 
ily  of  a  country  which  is  far  away,  but  are  not 
ready  to  face  evils  near  at  home  when  they 
affect  ourselves. 

Thus  the  matter  affects  the  world  and  Amer 
ica.  There  is  a  third  interest,  and  that  is  ex 
clusively  of  the  Negro  himself.  He  needs  a 
guaranteed  charter,  an  authenticated  minimum. 
If  the  vote  cannot  be  given  him,  at  least  let  him 
have  justice ;  if  he  cannot  be  admitted  to  labor 
unions  let  his  labor  be  adequately  protected; 
if  an  offense  against  a  white  woman  is  re 
garded  as  specially  heinous  and  dangerous  let 
the  legal  punishment  be  increased;  afford  his 
women  protection  also.  If  the  Whites  have 
changed  their  minds  about  slavery  let  them 
state  how  much  they  sanction — what  are  its 
limits.  Let  the  American  Eepublic  and  the 
British  Empire  state  their  policy  with  regard 
to  their  colored  population.  Make  it  clear  and 
manifest. 

The  Negro's  chief  danger  lies  in  a  consen- 


THE  WOELD  ASPECT  307 

sus  of  evil  opinion  concerning  him.  The  South 
rejoices  when  a  race  riot  disgraces  some  North 
ern  city  and  says:  "They're  beginning  to  find 
out  the  Negro  isn't  an  angel  up  there."  When 
a  General  Dyer  uses  the  machine-gun  argu 
ment,  or  a  mob  of  dockers  fall  foul  of  Negro 
immigrants  at  Cardiff  or  Liverpool,  America 
smiles  and  says,  "You  also?"  When  there  are 
reports  of  constant  trouble  in  South  Africa 
someone  else  says,  "So  you  cannot  get  on  with 
them  either  1 ' '  and  when  one  is  burned  to  death 
in  Georgia,  South  Africa  says,  "So  you  burn 
them  to  death,  eM" 

Out  of  a  cycle  of  happenings  is  derived  the 
thought:  No  one  can  afford  to  feel  virtuous 
about  the  Negro. 

That  fact  no  doubt  helps  the  Negro  press  in 
the  chanting  of  its  sorrows,  but  it  does  not  help 
the  Negro  himself.  In  fact,  it  shuts  out  a  good 
deal  of  hope  which  might  have  been  derived 
from  white  sympathy,  and  it  threatens  the  col 
ored  peoples  as  a  whole  with  worse  things  to 
be.  These  are  the  days  of  democracies  and 
white  proletariats,  and  both  show  themselves 
less  friendly  toward  Negroes  and  "natives" 
than  the  old  monarchies.  Their  hostility  is 
based  on  an  old  fashioned  ignorant  contempt; 
competition  in  the  labor  market,  and  a  sort  of 
fear.  Probably  it  can  be  overcome  in  time,  but 
if  so  it  will  not  be  through  white  enlightenment, 
but  through  a  world  organization  and  under- 


308      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

standing  on  the  part  of  the  colored  races.  For 
while  throughout  the  world  the  Whites  degener 
ate  somewhat,  these  others  rise.  The  gulf  be 
tween  the  two  is  being  diminished,  and  there 
may  come  a  time  not  very  far  away  when  the 
white  hegemony  will  be  lost. 


XV 
UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI 

FROM  New  Orleans  I  traveled  up  the  Missis 
sippi;  calling  at  such  characteristic  points  as 
Reserve,  Vicksburg,  Greenville,  Mound  Bayou, 
Memphis,  accomplishing  the  journey  partly  by 
rail  and  partly  by  boat.  Eeserve  is  a  vast  sugar 
plantation  owned  by  five  brothers.  It  is  only 
thirty  miles  from  the  great  city  and  the  Whites 
are  mostly  Creoles.  The  Mother  of  Rivers,  clad 
in  brown  silk,  flows  toward  the  green  humps  of 
hundreds  of  levees  and  embankments.  The 
shores  are  low  and  level,  and  there  grows 
almost  to  the  water  edge  a  vast,  close,  ten-feet- 
high  jungle  of  sugar  cane.  You  walk  along  the 
top  of  the  levee  till  you  see  a  lane  running 
across  the  plantation  like  a  trench  dug  through 
it.  In  the  lane  itself  there  is  no  view  except  the 
erect,  green  wall  of  canes  on  either  hand  and 
the  blue  sky  above.  Beneath  your  feet  are  cart 
ruts  and  withered  stalks  of  sugar  gone  purple 
at  the  joints  and  straw-colored  in  the  flanks. 
Take  a  stalk  and  break  it  across,  and  it  breaks 
in  shreds  like  a  bamboo,  revealing  the  inner 
fatness  of  sweet  pith  which  you  can  suck  if  you 
will,  for  it  is  sugar.  It  has  a  dilute  sweetness 

309 


310      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

which  rapidly  cloys  an  unaccustomed  palate, 
though  the  people  of  the  countryside  suck  it 
continuously,  and  many  consider  the  natural 
sugar  the  source  of  all  health.  The  taste  is  re 
produced  very  well  in  the  pralines  on  which 
New  Orleans  prides  itself. 

A  long  and  novel  sort  of  lane  this  through 
the  sugar!  A  Negro  worker  coming  along  the 
road  sees  a  white  man,  but  does  not  want  to  meet 
him,  and  he  takes  three  steps  into  the  dark- 
green  depths,  clawing  his  way  inside  as  through 
many  barely  shut  doors,  and  he  is  lost.  You 
would  seek  him  in  vain  if  he  wished  to  hide. 

The  lane  debouches  into  a  sun-bathed,  half- 
cleared  area  which  is  covered  with  stricken 
canes  looking  like  warriors  tumbled  in  death 
after  a  great  battle;  for  it  is  winter  and  the 
time  of  the  taking  of  the  harvest.  Negro  gangs 
with  rough  bills  like  meat  choppers  are  slicing 
the  side  leaves  from  the  cane  and  then  cutting, 
slicing  and  cutting,  all  over  the  plantation,  with 
joyous  noise,  and  there  are  great  numbers  of 
dark  girls  in  straw  hats  working  methodically 
and  rhythmically  from  the  shoulder  and  the 
bosom,  striking,  clipping,  felling,  as  it  were 
automatically,  unwaveringly.  They  break  in 
and  cut  in,  strewing  ever  more  extensively  the 
carpet  of  canes  in  their  rear,  but  the  wall  they 
attack  is  ten  times  as  dense  as  the  thickest  field 
of  corn  and  twice  as  high.  The  master  or  over 
seer,  on  horseback,  stands  about  and  calls 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  311 

sharply  to  the  workers  in  French  patois.  He 
may  be  white  Creole,  but  is  often  as  dark  as 
his  gang.  Where  sugar  is  not  rising,  beyond 
the  plantations  if  you  walk  as  far,  Nature  seems 
sunk  in  swamp  and  swarming  with  snakes.  The 
low  jungle  over  the  Mississippi  marshes  has 
many  alligators  and  a  multitude  of  other 
reptiles. 

In  a  clearing  of  the  sugar  harvest  it  is  pos 
sible  to  sit  on  a  hummock  of  grass  and  see  some 
thing  of  a  plantation  as  a  whole.  It  is  a  cloud 
less  day  with  the  faintest  haze  over  the  blue- 
ness  of  the  sky.  The  sun  heat  is  tempered  by  a 
delightful  air  which  keeps  on  moving  all  the 
time  like  an  invisible  river  of  health  and  vigor. 
There  is  a  whispering  in  the  myriads  of  the 
canes,  and  you  hear  the  slashing  and  the  clump 
ing  of  the  cutting  which  is  going  on  all  the  while. 
On  one  hand  are  the  rudimentary  huts  of  the 
Negroes,  like  dressing  rooms,  on  the  other  the 
lofty  refinery  of  white-painted  corrugated 
iron,  with  many  chimneys  and  cranes.  The  re 
finery,  using  electric  power  taken  from  the 
river,  works  off  all  the  local  cane  and  also  im 
ports  large  quantities  of  raw  sugar  brought 
from  Cuba.  Pile  driving  is  going  on  in  the  Mis 
sissippi,  and  there  will  soon  be  a  landing  stage 
to  which  the  Cuban  steamers  themselves  can 
approach.  The  Louisiana  cane  is  red  and  the 
Cuban  is  yellow-green,  and  the  latter  is  much 
the  sweeter.  On  the  plantation,  where  a  fair 


312      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

stretch  of  ground  has  been  cleared,  the  motor 
plough  is  at  work  with  huge  spiked  wheels,  turn 
ing  the  black  soil  over  the  sugar  seed  for  next 
year.  The  cane  has  an  eye  at  each  joint,  the 
eye  is  the  seed,  and  from  it  sprouts  next  year's 
plant,  growing  at  right  angles  to  the  old  cane 
in  the  earth.  "In  February, "  says  the  young 
Creole  ploughman,  "the  young  plants  have  to 
be  dug  up  and  replanted.  Work  goes  on  stead 
ily  all  the  year  round. ' ' 

I  resumed  my  way  up  the  Mississippi  on  an 
old,  broken-down  steamer  with  a  remarkably 
high,  wooden,  dripping,  splashing  paddle  wheel. 
To  go  by  boat  used  to  be  a  favorite  way  of  trav 
eling,  but  the  new  railways  on  each  side  of  the 
great  river  have  killed  the  water  traffic  by  tak 
ing  away  all  large  freight.  It  does  not  seem. a 
profitable  enterprise  to  ply  the  Mississippi  for 
passengers  alone.  There  are  therefore  only  a 
few  river  steamers  left,  and  these  have  to  call 
at  all  the  tiniest  and  obscurest  waterside  places 
and  lumber  camps,  and  can  seldom  make  more 
than  forty  or  fifty  miles  a  day.  Few  people  will 
travel  a  week  or  ten  days  or  a  fortnight  or  any 
thing  you  like  to  Memphis  when  a  locomotive 
will  do  it  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  passengers 
therefore  sit  in  stuffy  trains  listening  to  the 
vers  libre  of  the  man  who  offers  in  a  low  voice : 
cheiving  gum,  cigarettes,  iced  coco-cola;  and  the 
country  whirls  past  them  unprofitably.  The  cot 
ton  bales  which  used  to  go  down  stream  in  thou- 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  313 

sands  upon  river  steamers  are  now  closely 
packed  in  railway  trucks ;  and  the  molasses  goes 
no  longer  in  barrels,  but  in  huge,  iron  cisterns 
on  wheels.  There  is  therefore  little  traffic  on  the 
mighty  river — she  is  happier  and  freer,  more  as 
she  was  of  yore,  with  few  steamers,  few  barges, 
few  rafts — instead,  only  an  occasional  rowing 
boat  and  a  ferry.  The  water  is  brown  and  vast 
and  placid,  and  runs  in  many  courses  beyond 
wooded  islands,  beyond  vast,  swampy  forks  and 
tongues  of  the  mainland.  It  is  a  sort  of  cafe- 
au-lait  color,  and  the  shadows  mantle  softly 
upon  it  deliciously.  Willows  grow  in  the  water 
on  its  shores  and  islands,  and  in  shadow  or  sun 
light  the  water  laps  gently  the  many  tree  trunks 
or  lies  still  under  the  green  shade  of  the 
branches.  It  is  a  great,  intricate,  unexplored 
labyrinth  of  waters,  and  now  you  see  it  un 
adorned  and  lovely,  with  no  advertisements  on 
its  banks  and  no  shoddy  reminder  of  our  civi 
lization  on  any  hand — the  Mississippi  as  she  was 
when  we  first  saw  her.  I  traveled  on  a  boat 
called  Senator  Cordill  and  we  made  barely 
thirty  miles  a  day,  so  many  were  the  stopping 
places,  so  many  the  accidents.  It  cost  a  little 
over  a  dollar  a  day,  including  board,  and  was 
the  nearest  approach  to  a  gift.  The  ship  had  a 
motley  gang  of  colored  laborers  fetching  freight 
on  their  backs  in  intermittent  procession,  beat 
ing  out  dust  from  the  long,  wooden  gangway 
up  which  they  tramped  with  their  burdens.  The 


314      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

wooden  paddle  wheel,  which  was  ten  feet  high, 
had  got  into  disrepair,  and  at  a  riverside  town 
where  we  stopped  some  colored  carpenters  were 
at  work  fitting  new  wooden  parts  into  her  while 
close-cropped  Negroes  with  coal-dusted  skulls 
shoveled  coal  aboard  from  a  lighter.  We  had 
three  wooden  decks  rolling  with  small  freight 
for  tiny  places  in  Louisiana,  Mississippi  State, 
and  Arkansas.  In  the  cabins  were  huge  family 
bedsteads,  and  no  locks  on  the  doors.  When  the 
wheel  was  repaired  and  the  time  came  for  de 
parture  the  Negro  crew  deserted  en  masse,  and 
the  captain,  with  the  unlighted  cigar  which  he 
had  rolled  and  bitten  in  his  capacious  mouth  all 
day,  stood  on  the  bank  and  accosted  all  and 
sundry,  begging  them  to  come  aboard  and  work 
on  the  ship.  Meanwhile  in  a  quayside  hut  Negro 
girls  were  "shimmying"  as  they  brought  in 
food  for  their  colored  boys,  and  our  erstwhile 
crew  was  heard  singing  and  shouting.  Only  next 
morning  did  we  get  enough  hands,  and  at  the 
misty  dawn,  when  the  river  was  so  still  that  it 
looked  like  an  unbroken  sheet  of  ice,  we  raised 
anchor  and  plunged  outward  again.  In  the  main 
current  whole  trees  were  seen  to  be  floating, 
and  our  wheel  might  easily  strike  one  of  them 
and  get  broken  again.  We  sat  down  to  break 
fast,  the  eight  passengers:  one  was  a  judge, 
another  a  district  attorney,  a  third  was  an  agent 
for  timber,  and  the  rest  were  women.  The  china 
at  table  was  of  different  shapes  and  sizes,  and 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  315 

there  were  only  three  teaspoons — so  the  rest  of 
the  passengers  were  served  with  tablespoons 
for  their  coffee. 

Judge  T insisted  on  having  a  teaspoon 

from  the  colored  girl  who  waited  on  us,  but  was 
obliged  to  content  himself  with  the  tablespoon 
laid. 

"Teaspoons  is  sca'ce,"  said  she. 

"We  stop  at  various  "landing  places, "  points 
and  creeks  and  bends,  the  boat  generally  com 
ing  close  to  shore.  A  long  plank  is  thrown  out, 
and  then  commences  the  cakewalk  of  the  Negro 
"rousters"  carrying  out  all  manner  of  goods — 
in  one  place  it  is  materials  for  the  building  of  a 
church — and  bringing  back  cotton  bales  or 
whatever  else  may  be  waiting  for  us.  It  is  a 
sight  at  which  one  could  gaze  spellbound  for 
hours;  for  the  Negroes  keep  in  step  and  seem 
listening  to  an  inaudible  music.  Tfhey  lurch 
with  their  shoulders,  kick  out  with  their  flexible 
knees,  and  whether  taking  long  strides  or  mark 
ing  time  they  keep  in  unison  with  the  whole, 
their  heads  bent,  their  eyes  half  closed  and 
bleared  with  some  inner  preoccupation.  They 
are  in  all  manner  of  ragged  garments :  one  has 
a  lilac-covered  hat,  another  an  old  dressing 
gown,  others  are  in  sloppy  blue  overalls,  some 
wear  shabby  Cuban  hats,  and  they  go  screech 
ing  and  singing  and  dodging  knocks  on  the  head, 
but  always  keeping  step  with  the  dance.  The 
captain,  with  yesterday's  unlit  cigar  stuck  in 


316      THE  SOUL1  OF  JOHN  BBOWN 

the  side  of  his  month,  gives  directions  abont 
each  bit  of  freight,  nsing  wonderful  expressions 
of  abnse  and  otherwise  "encouraging"  the 
"  niggers. "  Looking  at  the  "rousters"  you  can 
easily  understand  that  dancing  of  a  certain  Mnd 
is  innate  with  the  Negro  and  springs  from 
him.  He  has  an  inborn  sense  of  the  beating  of 
time  which  we  call  rhythm.  It  is  so  exaggerated 
that  it  tilts  out  ridiculously  with  his  stomach 
and  controls  inanely  his  bobbing  head  and  nose 
and  dropping  eyes.  He  looks  a  savage,  but  he 
is  spellbound.  He  is  completely  illiterate  and 
largely  unintelligent,  but  he  has  solved  the 
problem  of  carrying  huge  cotton  bales  to  the 
ship,  providing  a  rhythmical  physical  stream 
for  them  to  flow  upon.  It  is  not  half  the  effort 
that  it  would  be  to  white  people  without  rhythm. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  the  Negroes  box  so 
well  is  because  they  do  it  in  the  same  rhythmi 
cal  way  they  shift  these  cotton  bales. 

Presently  they  commence  to  sing  while  they 
haul  up  the  anchor,  and  a  rowing  boat  passing 
us  with  Negro  oarsmen  is  also  choric  with 
bright,  hard,  rhythmic  music.  These  people 
understand  music  and  time  in  their  bodies,  not 
in  their  minds.  Their  blood  and  their  nervea 
have  consciousness  of  tempo. 

The  many  stops  in  Mississippi  State  afford 
opportunities  of  going  ashore,  picking  up  wild 
pecan  nuts,  talking  to  Negroes  at  their  cabin 
doors,  One  never  sees  a  white  man,  This  along 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  317 

the  Mississippi  is  the  real  black  belt.  According 
to  the  census,  the  Negro  is  in  a  clear  majority. 
This  causes  the  Whites  to  be  always  apprehen 
sive.  The  idea  prevails  that  the  Black  can  only 
be  kept  in  his  place  by  terror.  As  regards  this 
point  of  view,  the  Whites  prize  above  every 
thing  solidarity  of  opinion.  They  hold  that 
they  cannot  afford  to  discuss  the  matter,  and 
they  will  tolerate  no  cleavage.  In  politics  all 
are  of  course  Democrats,  and  if  the  American 
Democratic  party  is  on  the  whole  much  less 
liable  to  "splits"  than  the  Eepublican  party,  it 
is  largely  due  to  the  discipline  of  the  black  belt. 

"They  outnumber  us  ten  to  one,"  says  the 
agent  for  timber,  exaggerating  characteristi 
cally.  "It's  come  to  such  a  point  hereabout  that 
they're  pulling  the  white  women  out  of  their 
houses.  It's  done  every  day." 

I  could  not  believe  that. 

"But  if  a  Black  attacks  a  white  woman  Here 
abouts  he  is  certain  to  be  lynched,  and  knows 
it,  "said  I. 

"Yes,  it's  the  only  way." 

"But  there  is  not  a  lynching  every  day?" 

"No." 

"So  there  are  not  really  so  many  attacks  on 
the  women." 

But  the  day-moth  of  his  thought  refused  to 
be  caught  in  a  logical  net. 

"Did  you  ever  see  a  man  tarred  and  feath 
ered?"  I  asked  of  the  district  attorney. 


318      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

"No,  but  I've  seen  one  lynched,  and  helped 
to  lynch  him,"  said  he. 

"But  lynching  isn't  very  good  for  legal  busi 
ness,  "  I  hazarded. 

He  at  once  felt  ruffled. 

"It  doesn't  make  any  difference  to  the 
Negro, "  said  he.  "  He  hasn  't  got  a  soul.  They 
don't  go  to  heaven  or  hell." 

"How  do  you  make  that  out?" 

"They're  just  animals,"  said  he.  "They 
were  never  in  the  Garden  of  Eden,  for  Adam 
and  Eve  were  white.  Consequently,  as  they  had 
no  part  in  original  sin,  they  have  no  share  in 
our  salvation  either.  Christ  did  not  come  to 
save  those  who  never  fell  from  grace." 

"I  never  heard  that  before,"  said  I,  and  was 
so  greatly  amused  I  could  not  help  showing  it. 

The  attorney  sought  me  out  afterwards  with 
Biblical  proof.  The  sons  of  Cain,  it  appears, 
took  themselves  wives  from  the  daughters  of 
men ;  these  other  men  were  not  descended  from 
Adam  and  were  probably  Negroes — the  attor 
ney  was  perfectly  serious.  The  judge,  however, 
to  whom  we  referred  the  matter,  was  of  a  cyn 
ical  turn  of  mind,  and  chuckled  heartily.  "I  am 
a  subscriber  to  foreign  missions,"  said  he.  "If 
they  have  not  Adam  for  their  father,  why  do 
we  send  missionaries  to  Africa?" 

One  of  the  chief  places  which  I  wished  to  visit 
was  the  Negro  city  of  Mound  Bayou,  in  the 
Mississippi  Delta,  In  the  blackest  part  of  the 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  319 

State  of  Mississippi  this  is  a  city  which  is  en 
tirely  Negro,  possesses  a  Negro  mayor,  Negro 
policemen,  and  indeed  is  entirely  without  ac 
commodation  for  white  men.  I  stayed  there  a 
night  in  a  Negro  hotel  where  the  old  wall  paper 
was  in  hundreds  of  peeling  strips  hanging  on 
the  walls,  and  everything  in  the  bedroom  was 
broken.  It  is  a  musical  sort  of  city,  all  a-jangle 
with  the  banjo  and  the  brassy  clamor  of  the 
gramophone.  Places  of  amusement  are  many 
— the  Lyceum,  the  Casino,  the  Bon-Ton  cafe 
(with  jazzy  music),  the  Luck  Coles  restaurant, 
etc. ;  one  sees  many  advertisements  of  minstrel 
shows.  But  it  is  a  working  city,  and  at  present, 
with  the  high  cotton  prices,  it  is  tasting  real 
prosperity.  It  is  situated  in  the  rich  land  of 
the  Delta,  very  malarial  and  snake-haunted,  and 
therefore  not  very  suitable  for  white  men,  but 
the  district  produces  the  highest  quality  of  cot 
ton  in  the  United  States.  It  is  in  a  way  a  one- 
man  city,  and  owes  most  to  Charles  Banks,  who 
is  one  of  those  agreeable  and  talented  African 
giants,  who,  like  Dr.  Moton  and  others,  seem 
to  have  an  unexpected  capacity  for  greatness. 
His  energy  and  calm  foresight  and  his  money 
guarantee  the  gins  and  the  cottonseed-oil  fac 
tory  and  the  Negro  bank  and  probably  the  local 
newspaper  and  one  or  other  of  the  churches. 

In  Mound  Bayou  is  no  segregation  and  no 
racial  trouble,  and  the  Negroes  show  how  hap 
pily  they  can  live  when  unmolested.  It  is  a  type 


320      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

4 

of  settlement  well  worth  encouraging.  The  chief 
interest  of  the  city  just  now  is  the  building  of  a 
"  consolidated  school. "  All  the  small  schools 
are  to  be  pulled  down,  and  the  money  has  been 
subscribed  for  the  building  of  a  handsome  new 
school  on  modern  lines.  It  will  be  put  up  facing 
the  Carnegie  Library  Building.  I  was  sorry  to 
see  the  latter  devoid  of  books,  and  used  as  a 
Sunday  school,  but  the  building  was  given  be 
fore  the  city  was  ready  for  the  responsible 
work  of  organizing  and  controlling  a  public 
library.  I  talked  in  the  infants'  school  to  a 
strange  array  of  children  with  heads  like  mar 
bles,  and  found  a  common  chord  in  interest  and 
love  for  animals.  We  imitated  together  all  the 
animals  we  knew,  and  agreed  that  no  one  who 
did  not  love  animals  ever  came  to  anything  in 
this  world.  But  if  they  loved  their  animals, 
they  must  love  teacher  too.  I  talked  in  the 
beautiful  Wesleyan  church  on  the  difference  be 
tween  E  pluribus  unum  and  E  pluribus  rduo, 
but  that  was  to  grown-ups — and  they  were  so 
dull,  compared  with  the  children.  The  point 
was,  however,  that  though  the  United  States 
might  fail  to  obtain  unity  of  race,  her  peoples, 
white  and  black  and  yellow,  Teutonic  and  Slav 
and  the  rest,  could  still  be  one  in  ideal. 

"  We  are  trying  here  to  understand  the  beauty 
of  being  black,"  said  one  of  the  audience  edi- 
fyingly.  "Solomon's  bride  herself  was  black, " 
said  he. 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  321 

Mound  Bayou  is  the  pride  of  Mississippi,  as 
far  as  the  black  part  of  it  is  concerned.  The 
crowds  that  appear  when  a  train  comes  in  re 
mind  one  of  similar  pictures  in  Africa.  America 
seems  to  have  disappeared  and  Africa  to  have 
been  substituted.  An  entirely  black  South,  or 
even  one  State  entirely  black,  is,  however,  un 
thinkable.  The  white  man  has  shed  too  much 
blood  for  his  ideals  there.  He  can  never  easily 
abandon  any  part  of  it.  He  must  rise  to  the 
standard  of  his  sacrifices.  To  my  eyes,  Mound 
Bayou  was  a  little  pathetic — like  the  sort  of 
small  establishment  of  a  woman  who  has 
been  separated  from  a  rich  husband  through 
estrangement  or  desertion.  It  is  not  quite  in 
the  nature  of  things,  and  is  more  like  a  courage 
ous  protest  than  the  beginning  of  something 
new.  It  stands,  however,  as  a  symbol  of  incom 
patibility  of  temperament. 

There  are  many  who  say  that  when  left  to 
himself  the  Negro  slips  back  from  civilization 
into  a  primitive  state  of  laziness  or  savagery, 
and  they  instance  life  in  Haiti  and  the  supposed 
failure  of  Liberia.  It  is  said  that  he  does  not 
keep  up  the  white  man's  standard,  he  is  not  so 
strenuous,  he  is  not  a  good  organizer,  nor  de 
pendable.  That  is  not  entirely  true,  but  there 
is  some  truth  in  it.  Mound  Bayou  is  situated 
in  a  highly  malarial  region,  unfitted  for  white 
habitation,  but  being  surrounded  with  the  best 
cotton-growing  land  in  America  it  ought  to  be 


322      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

exceedingly  prosperous.  The  best  that  can  be 
said  is  that  the  local  planters  are  in  a  better 
plight  than  their  neighbors  who  are  inter 
mingled  with  Whites.  Complete  financial  fail 
ure  has  threatened  the  little  city  in  the  past, 
and  if  it  were  not  for  the  founder,  Mr.  Mont 
gomery,  and  its  financier,  Mr.  Banks,  most  of 
the  proprietorship  must  have  passed  over  into 
white  hands.  To  all  appearances,  the  Negro 
needs  decent  white  co-operation  in  business, 
and  mixed  commercial  relationships  are  better 
than  segregated  ones.  The  difficulty  is  to  find 
conscientious  business  Whites  who  realize  that 
the  prosperity  of  the  Negro  is  worth  while.  The 
fixed  idea  of  the  white  business  man  is  to  fool 
the  Negro  and  exploit  him  to  the  last  penny. 

Mound  Bayou  has  its  own  Negro  cotton  buy 
ers,  who  give  a  fair  price  for  the  cotton.  But 
it  is  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  a  Negro 
planter  can  obtain  from  a  white  buyer  the  true 
market  price,  and  it  is  rare  that  a  landlord  who 
receives  cotton  bales  as  rent  will  take  into  con 
sideration  the  enhanced  price  of  cotton,  even 
though  the  enhancement  is  supposed  to  be  pri 
marily  due  to  the  smallness  of  the  harvest. 
Where  the  white  man  is  in  control  it  is  true  the 
Negro  produces  more  because  he  has  to  in  order 
to  live,  but  he  is  nevertheless  the  victim  of  a 
systematized  swindling,  and  he  knows  it.  It  is 
causing  a  growing  discontent  among  the  black 
peasantry,  and  I  was  continually  told  about  it. 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  323 

One  of  the  worst  riots  of  1919  took  place  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river — in  the  State  of 
Arkansas,  at  Elaine.  It  is  also  in  this  so-called 
Delta  region.  The  origin  of  the  riot  was  rooted 
in  the  economic  problem.  The  white  buyers  and 
landlords  had  been  consistently  defrauding  the 
Negro  countryside  by  overlooking  the  enhanced 
value  of  cotton.  Cotton  had  risen  in  price  from 
a  pre-war  average  of  ten  cents  a  pound  to 
twenty-eight  cents  in  1917  and  actually  to  forty 
cents  in  the  current  year.  Formerly  it  was  gen 
erally  represented  to  the  Negro  that  he  was 
always  deep  in  debt  for  his  "rations"  or  his 
rent.  The  white  policy  was  to  keep  the  Negro 
in  debt.  It  was  never  the  custom  to  render  him 
accounts  or  to  argue  with  him  when  he  claimed 
more  than  was  handed  him. 

"You  had  a  fine  crop — you're  just  about 
straight,"  was  a  common  greeting  in  the  fall 
of  1919. 

But  with  the  prolific  Delta  crop  of  cotton 
and  a  quadruple  price,  the  discontent  of  the 
Negro  can  be  imagined.  It  was  intense,  and 
was  growing. 

There  are  two  versions  of  the  outcome  of  it. 
One  is  that  a  firm  of  white  lawyers  approached 
some  of  the  Negro  planters  with  an  idea  of  tak 
ing  the  matter  to  court  and  seeing  what  could 
be  obtained  in  redress.  The  other  is  that  the 
Negroes  "got  together,"  organized  a  body 
called  "The  Farmers'  Progressive  Union," 


324      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

which  then  approached  the  firm  of  lawyers  on 
its  own  account.  I  incline  to  think  that  the  for 
mer  is  the  more  probable.  The  white  firm 
thought  there  was  money  to  be  made  from  fight 
ing  Negro  claims.  Some  of  the  Negroes  were 
actually  agreed  to  take  the  matter  to  a  Federal 
Grand  Jury,  and  charge  the  Whites  with  frus 
tration  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution. 

The  Negroes  were  undoubtedly  daring,  and 
held  public  meetings  and  used  sufficient  bravado 
to  alarm  the  local  white  population.  The  rumor 
flew  from  farm  to  farm  that  the  Negroes  were 
plotting  an  insurrection.  Someone  discovered  a 
heap  of  rifles  stacked  where  they  had  been  left 
and  forgotten  when  the  Armistice  had  inter 
rupted  drilling.  This  gave  the  necessary  color 
to  the  idea.  Besides  the  rusty  rifles,  the  Negroes 
were  seen  to  be  not  without  firearms  of  one  kind 
or  another.  The  Negro  loves  weapons,  as  an 
Oriental  loves  jewelry.  Shotguns  and  revolvers 
in  plenty  are  to  be  found  in  the  cabins  of  the 
colored  country  folk.  The  Whites  put  up  a  pro 
vocateur  as  before  a  pogrom  in  Eussia.  He 
started  firing  on  Negroes  at  random  in  the 
Elaine  streets.  Then  two  white  officials  attempted 
to  break  into  a  Negro  meeting,  resorted 
to  arms,  and  were  met  by  firing  in  return.  One 
of  the  Whites  was  killed,  the  other  wounded. 
This  started  the  three  days  of  destruction  in 
Phillips  County.  The  whole  Negro  population 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  325 

was  rounded  up  by  white  troops  and  farmers 
with  rifles.  Machine  guns  were  even  brought 
into  play  against  an  imaginary  black  army.  A 
great  number  of  Negroes  were  put  in  a  stockade 
under  military  arrest,  many  were  killed,  many 
wounded.  And  three  hundred  were  placed  in 
jail  and  charged  with  riot  and  murder.  No 
Whites  were  arrested.  The  governor,  a  Mr. 
Brough,  was  largely  responsible  for  this  method 
of  investigating  the  alleged  conspiracy  of  the 
Negroes  to  make  an  insurrection.  The  whole 
occurrence  was  astonishingly  ugly,  and  it  was 
followed  by  ten-minute  trials  before  exclusively 
white  juries,  and  swift  sentences  to  electrocu 
tion  for  some  Negro  prisoners,  and  to  long 
terms  of  penal  servitude  for  others.  The  riot 
and  the  trials  so  exasperated  Negroes  through 
out  the  United  States  that  there  is  no  doubt  a 
Federal  Commission  of  impartial  men  might 
well  have  been  appointed  to  investigate  the 
whole  affair,  both  as  regards  its  inception  and 
as  regards  its  military  culmination  and  its  after 
math  of  trial  and  punishment.  As  it  is,  though 
Governor  Brough  says  to  the  Negroes,  "You 
rdid  plan  an  insurrection, ' '  and  though  the 
"Whites  of  Elaine  may  feel  happier  and  more 
secure,  it  is  an  obvious  truism  that  the  white 
population  of  other  States  cannot  be  feeling 
more  secure  because  of  it,  and  that  the  Negroes 
in  other  districts  feel  less  secure — they  feel  the 


326      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BROWN 

need  to  arm.  It  has  caused  a  great  increase  in 
public  insecurity.  Perhaps  because  of  this  the 
riot  has  been  more  discussed  than  other  riots. 
Somewhat  shocked  and  fretful,  the  governor, 
who  is  probably  a  brisk  business  man,  and  in  no 
way  like  one  of  those  more  neurotic  governors 
of  Eussian  provinces  which  occur  in  Andreyev's 
tales,  called  a  meeting.  Some  four  hundred 
"Whites  and  tamed  Negroes  were  brought  to 
gether  to  see  what  could  be  done  to  improve 
race  relationship.  This  was  a  month  after  these 
events. 

The  Commercial  Appeal  of  Memphis  reports 
the  governor's  remarks: 

"This  meeting  has  been  called  for  the  pur 
pose  of  a  heart-to-heart  discussion  of  the  rela 
tions  between  the  white  people  and  the  Negroes 
of  the  State.  These  relations  have  become 
strained,  especially  by  the  recent  rebellion  in 
Phillips  County.  I  say  i  rebellion '  advisedly 
and  without  qualifications,  for  it  was  an  insur 
rection,  and  a  damnable  one. 

"And  I  want  to  say  in  the  beginning  that 
Arkansas  is  going  to  handle  her  own  problems. 
I  do  not  intend  to  go  to  New  York  City  or  to 
Topeka,  Kansas.  When  I  want  advice  from 
Negroes  I  shall  ask  it  from  Arkansas  Negroes, 
and  when  I  want  similar  advice  from  white 
people,  I  shall  get  it  from  Jh_e  white  people  of 
Arkansas, 


UP  THE  MISSISSIPPI  327 

"I  also  wish  to  say  that  I  do  not  intend  to  be 
intimidated  by  any  publications  or  any  letters 
I  may  receive.  I  have  already  received  several 
letters  which  said  that  if  I  permitted  the  execu 
tion  of  these  twelve  Negroes  from  Phillips 
County  to  go  through,  I  would  be  assassinated. 
One  of  the  letters  contained  a  crude  drawing  of 
a  coffin,  represented  to  be  my  own  in  case  the 
Negroes  were  electrocuted.  I  received  one  let 
ter  to-day  which  stated  that  the  entire  city  of 
Helena  would  be  burned  if  these  Negroes  went 
to  their  death.  But  I  repeat  that  I  will  not  be 
intimidated  by  any  outside  influence  in  this 
question.  Our  own  questions  must  be  settled 
within  the  boundaries  of  our  State,  and  I  be 
lieve  that  there  are  not  enough  representative 
Negroes  in  the  State  to  do  this." 

So  said  the  governor,  but  it  is  rather  a  ques 
tion  whether  in  these  days  of  Leagues  of 
Nations  and  Alliances  and  "sympathies"  one 
State  like  Arkansas,  washed  partly  by  a  great 
river,  can  live  entirely  within  its  own  boun 
daries  and  without  outside  consideration. 

The  mighty  Mississippi  rolls  onward,  bearing 
the  spars  and  the  sands  of  half  the  States  of 
America  to  the  sea.  And  after  the  massacre  at 
Elaine,  for  some  days,  dead  bodies  of  Negroes 
were  washed  up  on  other  shores.  Doleful  mes 
sengers,  these,  on  the  river  of  Time, 


XVI 

AT  VICKSBUEG 

I  SUPPOSE  not  many  make  the  pilgrimage  of 
America;  land  in  New  England  with  the  Puri 
tans  or  sail  up  the  James  River  with  the  Cava 
liers,  linger  reflectively  at  Mt.  Vernon,  consider 
Boston  Harbor  and  the  tax  on  tea,  pause  at 
Bunker  Hill,  and  so  on — or  visit  Sumter,  where 
the  Stars  and  Stripes  were  hauled  down  by  the 
South,  and  then  make  the  tour  of  the  war  which 
followed.  It  would  be  worth  while — to  think  a 
little  at  Gettysburg  and  think  again  in  Georgia, 
walking  perchance  to  the  sea  after  General 
Sherman.  No  such  pilgrimage  would  be  com 
plete  without  riding  the  great  mother  river  of 
America,  and  it  occurred  to  me  that  a  fitting 
place  in  which  to  end  a  pilgrimage,  as  far  as  the 
South  is  concerned,  might  be  Vicksburg,  with 
its  vast  National  Cemetery  of  the  dead  of  the 
Civil  War.  It  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
war  shrines  in  any  land.  But,  more  than  that, 
it  is  a  solemn  reminder  of  all  the  brothers' 
blood  that  can  be  shed  out  of  pride  and  vain 
glory  of  heart,  and  an  obstinate  refusal  on  the 
part  of  one  section  of  a  nation  to  follow  the 
guiding  star  of  the  whole, 

328 


AT  VICKSBtlBG  329 

Vicksburg  is  a  beautiful  city,  built  on  a  steep 
cliff,  continually  in  sight  of  the  broad,  brown, 
passive  streams  of  the  Delta  and  the  strips  of 
forest  which  break  up  the  waters.  Above  it  all 
are  the  beautiful  lawns  and  terraces  of  the 
National  Cemetery  rising  from  the  Mississippi 
shore,  and  the  dead  lie  in  view,  as  it  were,  of 
the  broad  loveliness  of  the  river.  Sixteen  thou 
sand  Americans  hallow  the  soil.  They  are 
mostly  of  Grant's  army,  but  over  and  above 
there  is  another  burying  ground  with  many  of 
his  enemies.  No  vulgar  notice  warns  you  not  to 
pick  the  flowers.  Pick  them  if  you  will.  But 
poems  and  prayers  are  scattered  everywhere, 
and  still  as  you  go  you  pause  and  read,  and 
pause  and  read  again — 

On  Fame's  eternal  camping  ground 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 
And  glory  guards  with  solemn  round 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead. 

Tiny  cubes  of  white  marble  give  the  soldiers' 
numbers  and  names  and  regiments.  It  reminds 
one  now  somehow  of  the  great  cemeteries  of 
France. 

The  mighty  troop,  the  flashing  blade, 

The  bugle's  stirring  blast, 
The  charge,  the  dreadful  cannonade, 

The  din,  the  shout,  are  past, 

says  the  next  notice  board.  And  yet,  are  they 
past?  Are  they  not  always  going  on — as  long 
as  the  cause  for  which  the  soldiers  fought 
remains? 


330      THE  SOUL  OF  JOHN  BEOWN 

They  fought  for  unity.  They  fought  also  for 
freedom.  They  had  to  do  what  fanatical  old 
John  Brown  set  out  to  do  at  Harper's  Ferry, 
try  to  release  the  land  from  that  which  was 
abominable  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord.  They 
strove  to  do  it  by  righteous  force.  They  were 
martyrs  on  the  altar  of  their  country.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  their  country  loved  them  for 
their  devotion.  No  land  honors  more  its  heroic 
dead  than  does  America.  It  is  no  mean  thing  to 
have  died  for  America.  The  smoke  still  rises 
to  heaven  where  her  men  were  slain,  and  it  will 
rise  until  their  cause  is  completely  vindicated. 

Down  below  in  the  city,  at  the  corner  of  Clay 
and  Farmer  Streets,  last  year  they  burned  a 
Negro  to  death,  suspending  him  from  a  tree 
over  a  slow  fire.  According  to  the  evening 
paper,  '  '  The  flesh  on  the  body  began  to  crinkle 
and  blister.  The  face  of  the  Negro  became  hor 
ribly  distorted  with  pain.  He  assumed  an  atti 
tude  of  prayer,  raising  his  palms  together." 

When  the  victim  was  dead  the  leader  of  the 
mob  cried  out:  "Have  you  had  enough  fun, 
boys  ? ' '  And  they  cut  him  down. 

That  Negro  is  with  John  Brown  and  the  re 
pentant  thief  and  many  another  such,  in  Para 
dise.  But  those  who  did  the  deed  are  damned. 
The  Negroes  have  been  fleeing  from  Vicksburg 
ever  since  this  terrible  day.  But  the  dead  of 
the  old  war  remain  in  these  great  cemeteries. 


AT  VICKSBUBQ  331 

Something  has  been  effected :  the  children  of  the 
slaves  are  become  free,  but  the  children  of  those 
who  used  to  be  masters  still  take  a  Negro  now, 
and  then  and  burn  him  to  death. 

I  sat  on  a  pyramid  of  lawn  and  looked  8own 
to  the  river.  There  was  a  din  of  sawmills.  The 
Memphis  train  went  howling  past,  and  then, 
with  a  petty  rush  on  the  road  below  an  electric 
trolley  car  from  Vicksburg.  The  world  went  on 
in  seeming  peace.  A  throng  of  Negro  workmen 
holding  on  to  one  another  came  singing  along 
the  way.  They  were  not  slaves,  anyway.  They: 
had  life,  the  beginnings  of  new  life.  Though 
fraught  with  grave  dangers,  impeded  by  preju 
dice  and  hate  and  a  thousand  difficulties — 
nevertheless  it  was  new  life  that  they  had.  And 
those  who  died  to  give  it  them  lie  in  these  quiet 
graves  while  the  river  of  life  goes  past.  They 
did  not  mean  that  the  gift  of  freedom  should 
be  tarnished.  Most  of  them  would  be  ready  to 
die  again  to  complete  the  gift  they  gave.  And 
John  Brown  himself  if  he  should  reappear 
would  not  be  sweetened  by  what  he  saw  happen 
ing  in  the  world.  His  soul  goes  marching  on, 
but  it  is  still  the  soul  of  vengeance  and  wrath. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


jw  1  i  1967  7  '    ' 

^Af^  o  3  ir>7«  ^     , 

WKf  1  8  ' 

J/l  * 

.lllN     ^67-9M 

A 

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flEC'DLD    WAR 

9  71  -6PM  78 

JUL  1  8  1987 

A         /<hfF 

^•(-.LSlv.; 

Mf 

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'•/    -j    n     j 

Nv. 

FEB  1  8  1^5 

v   2  8  ly^4 

JLATION  DEPT. 

LD  21A-60m-7,'66 
(G4427slO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


YB  37250 


GENERAL  LIBRARY -U.C.  BERKELEY 


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